Election Commission to reveal unofficial results by 11pm on Sunday

The Election Commission (EC) anticipates that unofficial General Election results will be available by 11pm on Sunday. Results from ballot counts at polling stations across the nation will be compiled, verified, and subsequently published via the EC’s internet-based system called ECT Report starting at 7pm.

The unofficial results will be published on a designated website, which can accommodate up to one million users per minute, according to Suranee Pontawee, deputy secretary-general of the EC.

The EC plans to report the election outcomes in three main categories: Overall national ballot count figures, election results by province, and results by political party.

The first update of the unofficial results is expected to be released by 7pm on the day of the poll. This will occur after polling station committees have completed recording the outcomes of their ballot counts and begin submitting a report of the ballot counts to the EC through ECT Report.

The Government Big Data Institute is tasked with publishing the results on the web.

To minimise the chances of human error, each ballot count team will consist of two staff members, with each team responsible for handling results from no more than 20 polling stations.

The EC will first verify election results at each polling station by comparing them against turnout figures and all types of votes tallied at that specific station before making them public on the website.

Sawaeng Boonmee, EC Secretary-General, stated that individuals are permitted to take a picture or film a vote count as long as they do not interfere with the process. Taking a photo of a marked ballot, however, is a violation of the election law.

Observers are authorised to promptly correct ballot-counting personnel when they notice an error. They are also allowed to file a written complaint concerning any potential inaccuracies in ballot counting directly at the polling station, while station employees must record such objections, along with the polling station committee’s response to the issue.

In a separate development, the Internet Law Reform Dialogue (iLaw) group is recruiting volunteers to serve as election observers during Sunday’s vote and ballot counting at polling stations throughout the country.

Meanwhile, the Royal Thai Police assure that all officers deployed at polling stations have been trained in election laws and are required to maintain political neutrality to ensure law and order during voting.