History and political power network of members of the House of Representatives in Udon Thani Province

Abstract

The study of local politicians in Udon Thani Province has 5 objectives comprising: (1) to study political history including economic background and social livelihoods in Udon Thani Province (2) to discover the information regarding politicians in Udon Thani Province who have been elected as the members of house of representative since the first time until present (3) to study the networking politicians and their interest groups in Udon Thani Province (4) to explore forms and methods of election campaign of the a candidate for election as a member of the House of Representatives in Udon Thani Province since ancient time to present and (5) to seek to understand the interconnection between local politicians in Udon Thani Province and the national politicians.

The study of local politicians in Udon Thani Province employed qualitative research methodology extracting information and data from relevant documents as well as in-depth interviews.

The study revealed that there are totally 69 members of the house of representative in Udon Thani Province during period of democratic transformation from 1933 to 2011. These include: 4 female and 65 male politicians and three of them namely: Mr.Chalermpol Sanitwongchai, Mr. Prachuab Chaiyasan, and Mr. Rakkiat Sukthana were elected to the House of Representatives in seven consecutive elections.

Most of the politicians elected as members of the House of Representatives in Udon Thani Province are male. They are mostly from the governmental; business; and entrepreneurship background as well as there are previously the local politicians such as the members of provincial administrative organizations, municipalities, and district administrative organizations.

The main political networks playing a key role in supporting and strengthening the successful election in Udon Thani Province comprise: the Udon Thani Free Thai Movement; the local political network; the red- shirt network; and the political party network under the leadership of Thaksin Shinawatra.

            The remarkable techniques of political campaigns in Udon Thani Province are: canvassing to influence peer group; filed-visit communication; door-to-door communication; personal relationship; lobbying; area-based campaigning; name- card introduction; using other channels to spread messages such as poster; microphone car; organizing specialized conference; attending both cerebrating or tragic ceremony for example influencing religious belief.

Keywords: Politicians  Udon Thani Province;  Politicians Networks;
                Interest Groups; Voting Techniques