The Election Commission is meant to enforce the various laws associated with elections and to investigate candidates and parties that do not follow the law. So far, the new EC hasn’t done anything like that.
The most recent debacle involves the Senate selection-election. Several media outlets report that several “candidates” for that (s)election have spoken of vote buying and vote swapping.
At least two candidate’s in the senator selection, both from the “functional group” of “small farmers,” claimed vote dealing was common.
Boonyuen Khaopakchong, from Chumphon province, “claimed he had received a call offering him 20,000 baht…”. Kesak Sudsawad, from Yasothon province, “also suspected a foul play.” He “admitted receiving calls asking for an exchange of votes…”. He seemed to think the whole process was an expensive farce.
Another candidate, Worapol Bamrungsilp, from Bangkok, “said a fellow candidate called him and offered to pay for his travel expenses to the voting venue in return for a vote for that candidate.”
Even an anonymous EC source reportedly stated that illegal collusion was “detected in the intra-voting within some farmer groups…”, claiming that this was “influenced by politicians.” That latter claim is a kind of standard mantra that might be expected of the junta.
In a second report, Kamthorn Laosaphan, who lost out, complained of EC failures and another said that:
on the night before the vote, a group of candidates met in hotels on the outskirts of Bangkok to lobby for votes. Some were planning to swap votes while others came together to design a method to increase votes for themselves and for fellow candidates they knew personally.
In addition, more than 70 of those supposed to participate in the selection”vote” didn’t even show up. In some “functional groups” a lottery-like drawing was required “to pick the winners in several groups where the votes were tied.”
Despite all this, EC chairman Ittiporn Boonpracong triumphantly declared the junta’s “Senate candidate selection process at the national level finished early and smoothly…”.
Ittiporn grumbled that “[c]omplaints will be considered later…”. Maybe he is the “EC source” mentioned above as he claimed these were only made by the “small farmers’ group and [he] said their points were taken and would be considered later.” It seems that “later” means that “complaints” must be made within three days and that there are another two days for “investigation” as the 200 selected names must be forwarded to the junta within five days.
The whole senate selection process was conceived as a way for the junta to control parliament following an “election,” so we don;t expect the EC to trouble the junta and its planning.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 