Pa Khlok still without OrBorTor president

PA KHLOK: More than three months after the election for the posts, Pa Khlok Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) is still without a president.

Soonthorn Suebkhajorn, the lawyer for the Phuket Electoral Commission (PEC), yesterday told the Gazette that the PEC is still waiting for the Central Election Commission in Bangkok to order the PEC to uphold the results or to take further action.

K. Soonthorn said that the PEC had received a complaint from defeated Pattana (Development) party presidential candidate Sa-ard Kongnam that the vote counting of the July 25 election was not “clear and clean” and that there was an unduly high number of spoiled ballots.

K. Sa-ard lost by 186 votes to Gao Na (Progress) candidate Panya Sumphaorat.

The PEC also received a request from Banterng Salika for a recount of the votes in the fifth electoral district, where he lost to Bancha Salika by just one vote.

K. Panya told the Gazette the deadlock meant the OrBorTor could not function properly, as it did not have the requisite president and full council needed to approve budgets for large projects.

“If someone thought there were irregularities in the way the votes were counted, why didn’t they raise their concerns while the votes were being counted, instead of waiting until afterwards?” K. Panya asked.

The Chief Administrative Officer of Pa Khlok OrBorTor, Pranom Kaewprang, said that until the situation was resolved, the OrBorTor has to follow the same budget as last year, and that the only expenditure decisions it was able to make was on routine expenses such as utility bills and officers’ salaries.

She added that some projects that in the past had received support from the OrBorTor – such as Ramadan events for Muslims and the upcoming Loy Krathong festival – would miss out this year because funding cannot be approved.

“We want to the CEC to consider and approve the election results so we can have a president and council so we can function fully again,” K. Pranom said.

PEC lawyer K. Soonthorn said the PEC was expecting to hear soon from the CEC in Bangkok, but he did not know when this would be.