Thailand prepares for crucial vote

Thailand’s rival political parties wrap up their campaigns on the eve of a hard-fought election considered crucial to the future of the kingdom after years of turbulence. Authorities say 170000 police are to be deployed to protect polling stations for Sunday’s vote, which comes little more than a year after Bangkok was rocked by its worst civil violence in decades. Polls show the main opposition Pheu Thai Party, led by Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of the fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, enjoying a lead over current prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democrats ahead of Sunday’s election. Yingluck, a 44-year-old businesswoman, has seen a swift rise into the lead by tapping support in the rural north and northeast heartland where her brother remains popular five years after he was toppled in a coup. But Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democrat Party has dismissed Yingluck as a political novice serving as a nominee to allow Thaksin to return from exile, where he lives to avoid a two-year jail term for graft. Al Jazeera’s Aela Callan reports from northern Thailand.

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