PUBLISHED : 1 Mar 2025 at 04:00
NEWSPAPER SECTION: News
The Election Commission (EC) has completed an investigation into 109 cases related to cheating or block voting in the Senate election, and sent three cases to the Supreme Court, according to EC secretary-general Sawang Boonmee.
Mr Sawang yesterday gave an interview regarding the legal proceedings in the cases involved in the Senate election last year, saying that the EC has categorised cases involving vote-buying and electoral fraud, based on their complexity.
The cases include offering bribes, vote rigging, pre-arranged vote lists, block voting, abnormally high scores, and zero scores for some candidates. To tackle the issues, the EC appointed an advisory and coordination subcommittee to increase the efficiency of investigations. The members of the subcommittee are from three key agencies: the Royal Thai Police (RTP), the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo). Ten officials from other government agencies will join the subcommittee.
The EC also appointed an additional investigation and inquiry committee, consisting of four high-ranking officials from the EC and the other three from the RTP to investigate and inquire into the objections to the selection of senators in all areas. He said so far the EC received a total of 577 abnormal Senate election cases.
The EC has concluded investigations into 109 cases, with three cases already submitted to the Supreme Court. The 2017 Organic Act on the Election Commission grants the EC authority to initiate probes whenever there is reasonable suspicion or evidence of wrongdoing in elections and by political parties.