The Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) says it is ready to ensure security at the Bangkok Youth Centre (Thai-Japan) in Din Daeng district, Bangkok’s site for the election candidacy registration that will run from today until Friday.
Large crowds of candidates eager to register for the May 14 poll are expected.
Motorists, meanwhile, are warned to avoid Mit Maitri Road and a section of Vibhavadi Rangsit Road near the youth centre as heavy traffic is expected there as well as on other roads connected to them, particularly on the first day of registration.
Pol Maj Gen Chokchai Ngamwong, deputy commissioner of the MPB, said 35 police and 170 crowd-control officers will be deployed around the youth centre to work together with municipal officers from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).
Security inside the youth centre will be managed solely by the BMA, he said, adding no reports had emerged about any groups wanting to stir unrest.
Most party leaders and key figures are expected to show up at the candidacy registration site today, except for the Bhumjaithai Party leader, Anutin Charnvirakul, and the Chartthaipattana Party leader, Varawut Silpa-archa, who are engaged elsewhere, according to a source.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, head of the “Pheu Thai Family”, said she along with other key figures in the Pheu Thai Party will take the party’s 33 Bangkok constituency candidates to the registration today.
They will travel in a procession of electric vehicles.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, in his capacity as the chief strategist of the United Thai Nation Party (UTN), will today take the party’s constituency candidates in Bangkok to register their candidacy at the youth centre, said PM’s Office Minister Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana, who is the chief strategist of the UTN’s southern constituencies.
Gen Prayut, who has decided not to run as a list-MP candidate for the UTN, will tomorrow also lead the party’s submission of its list of list-MP candidates to the Election Commission (EC) at the centre, said Mr Thanakorn.