Thai lawmaker shot as election campaign begins

A Thai opposition lawmaker has been wounded in a drive-by shooting near Bangkok. The attack has been denounced as the first election-related violence as the country gears up for tense national polls.

The Tuesday evening shooting came a day after Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolved the lower house of Parliament to hold early elections on July 3.

A spokesman for the Puea Thai Party said Wednesday that a gunman on a motorbike shot parliamentarian Pracha Prasobdee as he drove his car. He survived and was hospitalized.

The elections will be a battle between supporters of Abhisit and those of former leader Thaksin Shinawatra. The Puea Thai Party is pro-Thaksin.

Thailand has been in political turmoil since Thaksin's ouster in a 2006 military coup.

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