Chiang Mai _ Duentemduang na Chiang Mai won the Chiang Mai mayoral election by a landslide with 24,204 votes, unofficial results showed yesterday.

Her arch-rival and former mayor Boonlert Buranupakorn, No.1 on the ballot paper, came second with 17,570 votes, while Pornchai Jittanavasathien, a former aide of Mr Boonlert and No.3 on the ballot paper, came third with 9,577 votes. A total of 65,213 people _ 59.66% of the 109,311 eligible voters _ made it to the polling booths on Sunday.

There were reports Mr Boonlert was preparing to protest against the result.

Local scholar Thanes Charoenmuang said Mrs Duentemduang’s victory showed that local people wanted change in local politics, which had long been dominated by the Buranupakorn family.

However, the mayor-elect may have problems with the present municipal council, which had close ties to Mr Boonlert. The council has another eight months of its term to run.

Mrs Duentemduang expressed confidence that her registration as a candidate was valid and that she would be able to work with the present council for the benefit of residents.

Mrs Duentemduang earlier filed a 10 million baht defamation suit with the provincial administrative court against the provincial and municipality election committees.

Source: Bangkok Post