‘No roses on Valentine’s Day!’ Bangkok election commission advises candidates

It turns out roses on Valentine’s Day aren’t a good idea for everyone.

The director of the Election Commission’s Bangkok branch yesterday advised candidates in the upcoming general election on May 7 not to hand out roses on Valentine’s Day. The director, Samran Tanpanit, said that roses handed out on such special occasions could be considered by authorities as a gift with commercial value and in violation of election laws for MPs.

Electoral contestants are forbidden by law from distributing items of commercial value to anyone during the 180 days preceding the Members of Parliament election, as it may be deemed an unfair advantage over other candidates. Samran said…

“When it’s everyone’s special day it may cause mistakes or forgetting to think about it. So please be careful not to break the law.”

Samran stressed that even small flowers are something that people value as property, Khaosod reported.

Samran noted, however, that no electoral candidates running in Bangkok have been reported for handing out cash or items of commercial value during last month’s National Children’s Day or the Chinese New Year season.

Election corruption is a persistent issue in Thailand, despite efforts to address it. Some of the most common forms of election corruption include vote buying, bribery, and the abuse of power by incumbent politicians. The issue of election corruption in Thailand has serious implications for the country’s democratic processes.

Last month, Thailand’s House Speaker Chuan Leekpai warned that the country can expect to see mass corruption in the upcoming general election. He said that money will be a powerful influence in this year’s election and vote-buying will be rampant.

To support his claim, Chuan pointed to the amount of campaigning that has been going on in the southern provinces of Thailand. Chuan said that economic hardship in the south has made people desperate for money and easily bought.