Election Commission still sifting through numerous complaints about winners’ qualifications
PUBLISHED : 2 Jul 2024 at 21:04
The Election Commission (EC) did not announce the official results of the Senate election as originally planned on Tuesday, as more time is needed to handle numerous complaints about dubious qualifications of some senators-elect, according to an EC source.
Since the complaints concern qualifications and alleged ineligibility, the EC needs to be extra careful and ensure that it strictly follows the law, said the source.
“We promise that we will get this task done as soon as possible while ensuring fairness for all sides,” said the same source.
When asked whether the poll body would announce results on Wednesday, the source said: “Maybe after that.”
The EC has so far reviewed more than a thousand complaints received about suspected ineligibility of a number of senators-elect and alleged violations of the election law, according to an informed source.
The law governing the Senate poll stipulates that the EC must wait for five days before it announces the certified result. There is no stipulation on the maximum number of days that can elapse between the final vote and the certification of results, explained the source.
The five-day period is for receiving complaints about the poll, in which 200 senators were elected and another 100 candidates held in reserve in case any senators-elect end up being disqualified later.
A former senatorial candidate on Monday urged the Supreme Administrative Court to suspend the announcement of the election result pending its ruling on the poll agency’s handling of the Senate race.
More than 45,000 candidates were approved to compete, and thus to cast votes, in the complex three-stage election. The final results indicated that the Bhumjaithai Party was among the few groups that managed to figure out the intricacies of the process well enough to exploit them.
A nation-leading 14 senators-elect come from Buri Ram, the party’s longtime stronghold. Eighty senators in all come from 12 provinces where Bhumjaithai has MPs.
Parit Wacharasindhu, a party-list MP and spokesman for the opposition Move Forward Party, said the EC had better announce the result as soon as possible so that the legislative and other duties of the new Upper House could resume.
Among these important responsibilities is passing bills that are required to allow the rewrite of the constitution, said Mr Parit, who is also chairman of the House committee on political development.
He also said that all sides, including those who were raising doubts over the qualifications of a number of successful senatorial candidates, should look at the bigger picture and acknowledge the importance of having new Senate in place.
“I think everyone has gone through the same rules designed under the 2017 constitution. So, if there is no proof of [those speculated] violations of the Senate election law, for me all successful candidates equally won the race under the same election process,” he said.
Prof Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, a law lecturer at Thammasat University, also agreed that the EC should announce the results first while continuing its investigations into any misdeeds.
The longer the newly elected Senate isn’t certified, the longer the caretaker Senate — appointed by the military-led government in 2019 – will remain in office, he said.
Caretaker senator Somchai Swangkarn, on the other hand, urged the EC to strictly follow Sections 42 and 59 of the organic law on the composition of the Senate, which stipulates that the poll body is duty-bound and holds the authority to ensure the Senate election is “correct, honest and fair”.