Updated: EC votes for the junta

We at PPT have been pointing out for some time that the Election Commission is a puppet of the military junta. Its recent press announcements have been so junta biased that they border on the loony.

This now means that the election commissioners now need the junta more than the junta needs them. We say this because so bad, incompetent, devious and biased has it been that should the junta not retain government, then the commissioners are likely to find themselves in the court.

This position means the EC is now throwing caution to the wind and its now bizarre decisions and rulings are its vote for the junta.

Two reports today indicate this pattern of brazen junta bias.

One is a Bangkok Post report that the EC is investigating a “plan by politicians from the disbanded Thai Raksa Chart party to shift supporters’ votes to another party and their call for ‘no’ votes, deeming the tactic illegal.”

Chairman Ittiporn Boonpracong said the EC has begun this quite preposterous fit-up without even receiving a complaint.

Ittiporn acknowledges that the dissolution of Thai Raksa Chart means that “[m]ost electoral laws therefore no longer applied to them,” but reckons they can be fitted-up under other laws.

EC (left) votes for The Dictator (right)

He reckons that campaigning “for ‘no’ votes and for eligible voters to vote for another party are prohibited.” Ittiporn babbles on that the law says that “voters must make their choice by themselves, without being led or influenced…”.

We have to admit that we have not heard of the laws Ittiporn contends exist, but we can’t fathom the notion that voters can’t be “influenced.” If that were true, no party could be campaigning.

Ittiporn goes fully mental declaring that both the “campaigners” and “the candidates who receive the votes” can be face the EC’s wrath, including bans and disqualification.

Then this absurd EC chairman “denied any intention to have any political party dissolved through this latest intervention.” But, of course, this was an inane proposition, for as everyone in the country knows, the target is Future Forward. It may also include Puea Thai as some in Thai Raksa Chart have urged votes for that party.

The EC has voted and its a rigged vote for the junta and its party. The situation is now beyond farcical.

Update: Can it get worse for the EC? Yes, it can. A report at The Nation also cites Ittiporn who seems to be playing “catch-up” on the Palang Pracharath banquet “investigation.” Despite EC secretary-general Jarungvith Phumma having said something else, Ittiporn has stated that the “investigation” is not complete. He doesn’t say why the EC “investigated” something that was not in the complaints and petitions. Sounds like posterior covering.

Ittiporn then declares that the “Thai Raksa Chart members might be violating the law that prohibits attempts to influence voters. The law clearly says voters must make a decision independently and without any outside influence…”. As noted above, this is simply bonkers.