Bomb attack damages vehicles carrying ballot boxes from local election in Yala

A bombing in the Deep South province Yala damaged several vehicles carrying ballot boxes from a local election. After the polls closed on Sunday for the Bannang Sata tambon administration organisation elections, eight vehicles were used to take the ballot boxes to the district office. As the vehicles drove on a rural road at around 7:55pm, a parked motorcycle exploded. A polling official was slightly injured in the bombing and taken to Bannang Sata Hospital.

Thai police had actually been preparing to crack down on politically motivated crimes. In an earlier report, police announced that they planned to deployed more than 86,000 officers to keep the peace and secure polling stations across Thailand during Sunday’s tambon, or subdistrict, elections. Rapid response teams were even planned to be deployed to assist election officials when moving ballot boxes.

It’s unclear how many officers were deployed in Yala’s Bannang Sata. Yala is also a province in the Deep South near the Malaysian border with ongoing violence related to the religious separatist insurgency.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post