Thai voters accuse Election Commission of corruption and electoral interference
The Election Commission of Thailand (EC) has been accused of corruption and interfering in the electoral process by voters in the Sattahip district of Chon Buri. Thai voters in the Sattahip district of Chon Buri filed complaints against the EC after the number of votes exceeded the actual number of voters by nearly 5,000.
The EC is responsible for overseeing the 10th constituency of the Sattahip district. It announced that out of 131,994 registered voters, 93,252 individuals cast their ballots. According to the EC, 87,961 were valid ballots, 7,229 were invalid ballots, and 3,057 were classified as ‘vote no’ ballots. But it appears the EC is crap at maths as there is a discrepancy in the numbers as 98,247 votes were cast which exceeded the number of residents, 93,252.
A resident of the Sattahip district, Wiranda Pandee, attempted to take a picture and record a video of the discrepancy as evidence, but an EC employee grabbed her phone, causing Wiranda to fall and injure her wrist. Wiranda was immediately taken to hospital for treatment.
The situation became more tense when a group of residents and authorities almost clashed over the vote discrepancy, but the police intervened to prevent any further escalation.
In an interview with KhaoSod, Wiranda explained that many people protested against the inaccurate election results in the Sattahip constituency. Fearing that the authorities were attempting to cover up their mistake by deleting crucial information, she decided to record the incident as solid evidence.
Wiranda has filed a complaint at the Sattahip Police Station and shared the videos and pictures of the incident with several media outlets to expose the EC’s wrongdoing to the public.
The Director of the Chon Buri Provincial Election Commission Office, Witchuda Mekhanuwong, reported that the officers from the municipality and Sattahip Police Station moved the ballots to the office, located 50 metres away from the polling station for safety. Witchuda added that the actual number of invalid ballots was 2,200, not 7,229, and that the score of each candidate was the same. The EC said they will decide later whether all the ballots would be recounted or not.
An unofficial report published on the EC website stated that Sathira Phuakprapan from the Palang Pracharath Party emerged victorious in the 10th constituency of the Sattahip district, with 27,461 votes. The second runner-up was a candidate from the Pheu Thai Party, and the third runner-up was a candidate from the Move Forward Party (MFP).
In the other Chon Buri constituencies, MFP unofficially won seven constituencies, Pheu Thai won one constituency, and Ruam Thai Sang Chart won one constituency.
