Democracy wins in Thailand

Thailand went to the polls yesterday in general elections, and have returned a landslide victory (and an absolute majority) for the Pheu Thai Party. Its a particularly sweet victory given what has happened in Thailand recently; Pheu Thai is the successor to Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai Party, which was ousted by a coup in 2006. The party reformed, and won the post-coup elections, but was dissolved after a court case and lost government after a coalition realignment. Hopefully this time they'll be luckier. While I don't think much of Shinawatra (the words "corrupt scumbag" spring to mind), he has a genuinely popular political platform which has repeatedly won the support of the majority of the Thai people, but has been thwarted and suppressed by undemocratic and extralegal means by the Thai elite. As long as it keeps winning elections, that platform deserves the chance to be implemented.