In Bangkok, Politics With a Punch

Combative Candidate With a Past and His Eccentric Rivals Face Election Today

BANGKOK -- It is rare that a politician so completely lives up to his billing.

Across Bangkok, the face of Chuwit Kamolvisit -- former massage parlor king and self-confessed briber of police -- scowls from posters at the residents he hopes will vote for him in Sunday's election for governor of Thailand's largest city.

He has taken on the persona of Mr. Angry, infuriated apparently by the corruption in the city. And on Thursday, he lived up to his image in an unexpected way, punching a television interviewer who had questioned his manhood, a potentially fatal political error in a society that places a high value on emotional self-control.

With a population of more than 10 million, Bangkok suffers from many of the ailments of fast-growing cities elsewhere in the developing world: Polls put traffic congestion, pollution, corruption and overburdened services at the top of a long list of complaints from its long-suffering residents.

Successive governors have tried with varying degrees of enthusiasm to tackle these problems, but almost all the efforts have fallen victim to bureaucratic inertia, entrenched interests and a budget controlled by a national government with limited sympathy for what is the most developed part of the country.

Chuwit is the most colorful of the 16 candidates for the position of governor. He made his money from a string of thinly disguised brothels and once boasted of paying the police almost $3.5 million a year in bribes. But he has sold his businesses, cleaned up his image and reinvented himself as an independent politician.

"Massage parlors are dirty, but politics are dirtier," he said.

In a recent manifesto, he declared: "I have two main policies. First, there will be no corruption during my term in office. Second, I will develop Bangkok while taking into account the problem of global warming. At least during my period as governor, the development of Bangkok will not increase global warming."

On Friday, the usually pugnacious Chuwit was contrite, trying to undo the damage of his violent outburst by visiting a temple and begging at a news conference, "Don't use this one incident to judge me."

But even before the incident, a poll conducted this month by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University showed Chuwit running in second place, trailing the leader and incumbent, Apirak Kosayodhin, by 33 percentage points.

Apirak, a member of the Democrat Party, has done a steady if unspectacular job in his four years as governor, but he has benefited from a well-oiled party machine in the city and a lack of competition.

"He is almost winning by default," said Pravit Rojanaphruk, a prominent commentator who writes for the Nation newspaper. "The other candidates just aren't that convincing."

Apirak has also benefited from the increasingly bitter political debate that has divided the country's political landscape on a national level.

The divide has pitted relatively rich urban Thais against their rural cousins. The People Power Party holds power nationally, but many Bangkok residents have deep misgivings about it.

Thousands of demonstrators have taken over the prime minister's office in central Bangkok and have vowed to remain there until the government, which they accuse of corruption, is removed from power.

The Suan Dusit poll indicated that the People Power Party's candidate, Prapat Chongsanguan, would get 13 percent of the vote.

But even he has a huge lead over some other candidates. Thoranee Rittheethammarong, 63, entered the race because, she said, King Rama V, who died in 1910, appeared to her in a dream. She hasn't campaigned at all, saying the blessing of the king should be enough to guarantee her victory.

And even she is more fortunate than Leena Jangjanya, who owns a cosmetics business but gained prominence as a political activist. Leena and some on her team decided to take a dip in one of Bangkok's filthy canals to illustrate that many residents have no access to clean water. Her campaign manager, Veerasak Sitanond, drowned. Leena immediately withdrew from the race.