BANGKOK, May 11, 2011 (AFP) - A Thai opposition politician close to fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra was shot in an attack which the government said Wednesday appeared to be politically-motivated with an election looming.
Pracha Prasopdee, a lawmaker with the opposition Puea Thai party until the lower house was dissolved this week, was hospitalised after being shot in the back late Tuesday in Samut Prakan in the outskirts of Bangkok.
The attack came as Thailand gears up for what is expected to be a closely fought general election set for July 3, the first since political violence erupted in Bangkok last year, leaving about 90 people dead.
"I assume that it's (linked to) politics but I don't know whether it's national or local politics," deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who oversees national security, told reporters.
Suthep said he had ordered the national police chief to draw up a security plan with preventative measures to protect politicians, particularly in fiercely contested constituencies.
Police said Pracha was shot at nine times by a gunman on a motorcycle while driving his car, but most of the bullets missed him and his injury was not thought to be life-threatening.
"Police are still investigating the motive. We are unsure if it is political," said police investigator Lieutenant Colonel Saneh Maneenoi.
Puea Thai spokesman Jirayu Houngsub said that Pracha had intended to run for re-election in the upcoming election.
The politician is a staunch supporter of Thaksin and has visited the telecoms tycoon-turned-premier overseas where he lives in self-imposed exile.
The polls are expected to be a close race between Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's elite-backed Democrats and allies of Thaksin, who lives overseas to avoid a jail term for graft but is seen as the de facto opposition leader.
Abhisit's party is Thailand's oldest with a support base in Bangkok and the south, but it has not won a general election in nearly two decades.
Thai society remains deeply split a year after mass demonstrations by the opposition "Red Shirt" protest movement sparked a series of clashes between protesters and armed troops in the heart of Bangkok a year ago.
It was the worst political violence in decades, and the International Crisis Group think-tank warned last month that the election could bring fresh violence.
One local politician was killed and two others seriously injured in three separate attacks on March 2, 2011.
Puea Thai, which is particularly strong in the rural north and northeast, has not yet announced its candidate for prime minister, although Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra has been considered a top contender.
Parties linked to Thaksin have won the most seats in the past four elections, but the former tycoon was toppled in a 2006 coup and court rulings reversed the results of the last two polls.
Abhisit took office in a 2008 parliamentary vote after a court threw out the previous administration, and he is accused by his foes of being an unelected puppet of the military and the establishment.
