From an upstairs window, orange-robed monks stared at the crowd gathering at the makeshift polling station in the courtyard of their monastery. Hill-tribe women in colourful costumes and government officials in khaki uniforms stood out amid the mass of farmers and tradesmen waiting to cast their ballots in Thailand's parliamentary election. A Muslim man with a thin beard and a white skullcap rubbed shoulders with an ethnic Chinese woman in a red silk shirt. A limping pensioner rode up on the back of his grandson's motorcycle. For all their variety, however, this group of voters in Pai, in Thailand's rural north-west, had one thing in common: a desire to see Thaksin Shina-watra, Thailand's outgoing prime minister, returned to office.
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