"Auntie Liberty" wins few votes from Thailand protesters Picharrinee Ratanachamnong hoisted a flashlight high above her head, defying the whistleblowing Thai opposition protesters thwarting her efforts to vote and assuring her near-instant online fame as "Auntie Liberty." Footage of this small business owner's counter-protest to a campaign to sabotage an election illuminates a somewhat forgotten voice in the run-up to Sunday's parliamentary polls: one that simply wants to vote. "I don't like this gang," said Ms Picharrinee of the protesters, who are portrayed as ghouls clawing at her body in one of several pastiches of the showdown now circulating online. They are aggressive and they intimidate people. Ms Picharrinee's abortive efforts to take part in early voting in north Bangkok last Sunday, designed for people unable to get back to their constituencies in time to vote on February 2, demonstrate the irony at the heart of the protests in this nation of 65m people. An opposition rooted in the establishment elite, which has ousted a series of prime ministers and now has its sights trained on yet another, has grown increasingly hostile to elections after suffering a string of humiliations at the hands of voters. "The opposition are protesting about losing their status in society," said Duncan McCargo, a political-science professor and Thailand specialist at Britain's University of Leeds. Their problem is not bringing down a government: their problem is what to put in its place. The early voting that pivoted Auntie Liberty to fame gave a foretaste of tensions on main polling day, when the army has said 10,000 police and more than 5,000 troops will be deployed in and around Bangkok. I wanted to shine a light. Because it looks like the country is covered in darkness Picharrinee Ratanachamnong (Auntie Liberty) An estimated 440,000 people were unable to vote last week because polling stations were shut in the capital and south Thailand, with protesters in some cases chaining buildings shut and physically assaulting voters. These opposition tactics, which have drawn criticism from the US and European Union, are in sharp contrast to those of the pro-poll activists, with their trademark "Respect my Vote" white T-shirts. About 200 pro-poll activists gathered to sing and light candles close to the turtle-filled ponds of Benjasiri park in Bangkok's upmarket central Sukhumvit district. Many were well-educated and well-heeled, including a maverick minor Thai royal and another woman clutching a white Pomeranian dog, but they dismissed the idea they were either socially unrepresentative, or simply pro-government agitators and stooges. Even if Sunday's poll passes in relative calm, many observers see it as little more than an end of the beginning of a process that has moved far beyond the realms of normal democracy. The national election commission, seen by government loyalists as pro-opposition, has already warned that parliament will be unable to reach a quorum of MPs to sit, as no candidates have even been registered in some opposition heartlands. In 2006, Thaksin Shinawatra won a poll also boycotted by the opposition, only for the military to sweep him away five months later. He has since has been in self-imposed exiled but his legacy remains. The current protests began after abortive attempts by the government of Yingluck Shinawatra, the prime minister and Mr Thaksin's sister, to pass a law giving amnesty to her brother and other politicians accused of serious crimes. For Auntie Liberty, the likely trouble to come makes her role all the more important. "I wanted to shine a light," she said, of her decision to pack the torch in her bag when she went to vote. Because it looks like the country is covered in darkness.