Plays down amount of ballot complaints
PUBLISHED: 21 Jun 2024 at 05: 54
Wooing or exchanging seats in the Senate vote are no longer deemed a violation of the Election Commission’s (EC ) laws, Sawang Boonmee, EC minister- standard, said on Thursday.
Mr. Sawang was responding to questions about whether encouraging individuals to vote for themselves or to pledge to vote among themselves was against the Senate vote rules.
Following a complaint lodged against the EC’s first restrictions imposed on individuals ‘ election fighting, the Administrative Court on May 24 ruled against such limitations, which resulted in their being repealed.
Mr. Sawang also downplayed press reports that the EC received a sizable number of complaints about suspected Senate election rules, arguing that given the number of individuals, it was n’t large. He stated that if any issues prove to be true, the EC did file legal action.
These candidates are free to use votes however they like, with the exception of buying votes, which is against the law, he said, because the EC’s legislation restricting Senate election candidates ‘ self-introduction in government was removed as a result of the May 24 decision.
” When creating these principles, we aimed to ensure justice for all individuals. But since the jury has ruled to hold the rights and independence of these individuals ]above the purpose of us creating these regulations], we have to adopt the ruling”, he said.
When asked for a response to the claim that only those candidates affiliated with the reformist Move Forward Party ( MFP ) and conservative political parties will ultimately win the upper house, Mr. Sawang said:” It’s hard to say.
Three well-known candidates submitted three issues to the EC on Wednesday over alleged vote regulations violations, out of the three that the EC has received over the past two rounds of voting.
They were famed attorney Sitra Biabangkerd, social activist Sonthiya Sawatdee and Santana Prayoonrat, a previous higher- standing police officer.
Mr. Sitra claimed that he had provided the EC with evidence of collusion by some individuals hired to throw ballots for a certain group of individuals after filing a complaint with the EC.
The lawyer will vote in the last national election on Wednesday after capturing the most votes in the district and municipal rounds in Samut Sakhon. He claimed to have obtained voter fraud documentation and to have presented it to the EC.
Mr. Sonthiya and Mr. Santana won the district-level vote in Bangkok’s Pathumwan region, but they afterwards both lost at the provincial level.
Mr. Santana accused three unidentified key parties of being involved in alleged voting getting in the continuing Senate race while Mr. Sonthiya stated that he also intends to appeal the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office- Holders or the Constitutional Court over the results of the election.