Let's compare election leadups

If you are still feeling a bit sore about the annoyance of Australian election campaigns, this comparison with Thailand's may help give a bit of perspective.....

There were Chiang Mai mayoral elections a few months back, with the numbers of the candidates on posters, COVERING the city.
Thailand is having parliamentary elections on the 23rd of December (finally they are moving on from military rule since the coup).
- There are more than 17 candidates. Our mailbox overflows each day with advertising material.
- You can't travel very far without being deafened by a ute with massive speakers, cruising around town blasting out campaign promises.
- Everyone must return to their home town to vote - kind of like the first Christmas census!
- Corruption is rampant. The ethnic minority community that we work with has been bought off by a candidate. Apparently if anyone in the community does not vote for that candidate, they lose all of the money (what happened to a secret ballot?!?).
- And possibly the most interesting: no alcohol can be sold during the weekend of the election, or for the weekend BEFORE the election.

They are a pretty tolerant bunch over here!
Here is an interesting report about the elections: http://au.news.yahoo.com/071218/19/15au2.html

I can now report that there are at least 23 candidates for prime minister, and during the last election there were heavy floods, so some votes from remote villages were transported on elephants through the flooded waters to be counted :)