PA Noi, 50, a vegetable saleswoman at San Khampaeng market, Chiang Mai, claimed that she was still waiting for Thaksin Shinawatra. Tempo met her at a corner next to a chicken stall at the end of last June. That afternoon there were hardly any buyers there. While talking, Noi busily shooed away flies buzzing around her vegetables.

Thaksin Shinawatra is the former Prime Minister of Thailand who was deposed in a military coup in September 2006. �