PUBLISHED: 18 Jun 2024 at 05: 51
After some candidates received an unusually high turnout from their peers in Buri Ram, caretaker senator Somchai Swangkarn has urged the Election Commission (EC ) to launch an investigation into alleged irregularities in the weekend provincial-level Senate election.
23 645 individuals who completed the district-level selection process on June 9 took part in the provincial-level voting on Sunday in 77 regions.
Immediately, 3, 080 candidates were shortlisted during the process, and they will go on to battle for 200 Senate seats up for grabs in a national- level battle on June 26 at the Impact Arena in Muang Thong Thani, Nonthaburi. On July 2, the election results are anticipated to become released.
But, concerns were raised when a number of well-known candidates failed to pass the provincial-level round.
Sen Somchai cited data he obtained that suggested the majority of individuals in Buri Ram had never voted for themselves but had almost unanimously voted for some candidates who each ended up receiving more than 20 vote, pointing out the alleged inconsistency on his Instagram page.
The lawmaker claimed that it makes no sense that individuals chose to vote for others rather than themselves.
” The EC had immediately look into the matter to make sure no harm has been caused,” he said.
Numerous congressional candidates who also lost the Khon Kaen provincial-level civilization have written to the provincial EC workplace complaining about the inconsistency of the election process.
Patchara Buaphang, a member from expert party 15, which includes the elderly, the disabled and cultural groups, expressed worry over the statewide- level election results.
More than 20 individuals from the team did not vote for themselves or received no vote, according to Mr. Patchara telling the press.
He thought it was odd that a little-known elementary school teacher had won more district-level votes than the majority of other hopefuls.
” I suspect collaboration among the hopefuls, as the majority of the 35 candidates who left city levels were professors who have constantly received more votes than the others,” he said.
He continued,” The fact that more than 20 candidates did not cast ballots for themselves raises questions about the integrity of the vote process,” adding that he has decided to lodge a complaint with the EC and demand a swift research.
Watchara Seesan, director of the Khon Kaen municipal EC office, stated that the EC did follow the law and launch its investigations as quickly as possible before the national-level elections.
At the city level, there was an intra-group election where five candidates won the most votes in each group before moving on to an inter-group election. In the between- group ballot, the three individuals with the highest number of votes were shortlisted per party, or 60 across 20 organizations.
On Sunday, the selected candidates went through a similar selection process at the municipal level, but this time, during the inter-group poll, just the two candidates with the most votes advance to the last national stage, where the best 10 senators from each of the 20 groups are chosen.
Mr. Watchara stated that the EC will investigate the allegations of vote-rigging by applicants who chose another candidates over themselves. He claimed that the majority of other complaints involved questioned member eligibility, and that some candidates were reportedly placed in the wrong professional organizations.