Paiboon sole candidate to register for OrBorJor poll
PHUKET: Paiboon Upatising, the recently resigned President of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organisation (OrBorJor), registered yesterday morning at the Phuket Provincial Hall to run for re-election in a poll scheduled for April 7.
Tuesday 6 March 2012, 09:43AM
He was the only candidate to show on the first day of registration, which runs until Friday (March 9).
After lodging his papers, Mr Paiboon told The Phuket News he was positive that he would get good support from the people of Phuket.
“We’ve achieved a number of projects during the past four years,” he said. “We are confident that we will get another chance to run the OrBorJor.”
While President of the OrBorJor, Mr Paiboon set up several facilities including recreational facilities and public buses in Phuket Town. His team also opened the OrBorJor Hospital.
Mr Paiboon said that, if elected, he has an ambition to create “a green Phuket” with recreational and green space around the island.
An OrBorJor soccer field is currently under construction at Cherng Talay, near Surin Beach. It is due to be completed by the end of this year.
A new sports complex is planned for land around Bang Neow Dum reservoir in Thalang District, and an exercise trail will be laid out around Bang Wad reservoir in Kathu District.
He also wants to take on one of Phuket’s longest-standing abandoned buildings, the Lucky Complex, a failed department store building on OrBorJor land in Saphan Hin.
Lucky Complex was taken over by the OrBorJor in 2002 and various attempts have been made in the intervening years to get the complex up and running again, first as a duty-free centre and later as science learning centre.
None of these has met with any luck. Mr Paiboon now wants to try turning it into an indoor sports complex.
Mr Paiboon said he has also been discussing with the Land Transport Office a plan to add more “pink” buses to increase the OrBorJor’s public transport’s capacity.
He said his major concern is the OrBorJor Hospital – one of the reasons he called an early election, as he was worried about the expiry in June of the contract with Bangkok’s Thonburi Hospital to run the hospital.
Mr Paiboon said that, if re-elected, he plans to increase the number of medical specialists to include eye, ear, nose and throat, and skin doctors.
In addition, he said, he has a plan for promoting Phuket to bring more tourists from new markets such as India and Taiwan.
