Campaign manager drowns in Bangkok election publicity stunt

by Tina Kells | September 26, 2008 at 10:35 am | 94 views | add comment | 0 recommendations

A Bangkok Governor Candidate fell into the dirtiest canel

Bangkok governor candidate Leena Jangjanya cries

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A publicity stunt with the best of intentions went horribly wrong Thursday, when the campaign manager of Leena Janqjanya, a candidate for governor in the Bangkok elections, drown while drawing attention to the lack of clean water in the city.

32-year old Thirasak Sitanont drown while bathing in the dirty waters of a local canal. The publicity stunt was meant to clearly demonstrate the toxic nature of the water used by many of Bangkok's poorest citizens.

While Janqjanya and her aides were showing reporters the rashes they developed from bathing in the dirty canal water, her campaign manager was swept away. To compound the tragedy, when observers noticed Sitanont struggling in the murky waters, they did nothing to help thinking that he was simply putting on a show.

Candidate Leena Jangjanya said 32-year-old Thirasak Sitanont drowned Thursday as she and other staff were showing journalists the rashes they got from washing in the filthy water.

"One of my staff saw him waving and crying for help, but we thought he was pretending and he was far away from us, posing for two TV crews," a sobbing Leena told Reuters.

"A few minutes later he disappeared and we had to call the police to come and find him," said Leena, who had fallen into another canal in front of the TV cameras Wednesday as she was trying to show her support for riverboat commuters.

Leena, a businesswoman, is among 16 candidates in the race to be governor of Thailand's capital city of 10 million people.