ABSTRACT
The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) was inspired by the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines which encouraged lay men and women to become more involved in political and social affairs. Although the PPCRV and Voters' Organisation, Training and Education for Clean Authentic and Responsible Elections (Votecare) risk mixing religion and politics too tightly this is not so much of a problem in Thailand. The basic criticism of PollWatch activities is that moralizing the elections in terms of what are seen as "urban middle-class values" misses the important socio-economic determinants of the election process. The best way for PollWatch to attack the cultural practice of election fraud is to bring the socio-economic and the moral discourses together for an alternative political culture. PollWatch likewise aims to use a "politics of influence" to try to make Thai voting culture more democratic in particular, and to build civil society in general.
