Thailand’s election officials assure there is no cause for concern regarding Sunday’s election, as they have addressed the most recent in a lengthy string of unforced mistakes since their replacement by the military.
Election commissioners confirmed that they have resolved issues with votes cast during Sunday’s advance voting after around 100 ballots were inaccurately marked with incorrect information by polling staff.
Concern grew on Sunday as advance voting took place nationwide, with reports of inaccurate data for constituencies and provinces documented in at least two provinces: Chiang Mai and Nonthaburi.
This raised concerns that some votes might not be counted by Election Day on Saturday, potentially impacting the final count. Additional complaints came from voters unable to locate their names at their assigned polling locations and non-functioning QR codes for vote confirmation.
Election head Saewang Boonmee announced that all problems were resolved after voting ended at 5pm.
Saewang assured that voters’ ballots would be counted and emphasized that there was no deliberate wrongdoing intended to destroy the vote.
Online demands for legal action to hold the commission responsible emerged, with hashtags such as #WhyIsThereACommittee and #ElectionCommissionMustGoToPrison trending on Thai Twitter.
The Move Forward Party announced it would hold a press conference later today, advocating for transparency before Election Day.
The commission has experienced a series of mistakes since the junta dissolved it and appointed new members in 2017, two years prior to the first post-coup election in 2019.
In April, the commission had to issue an apology when its voter registration system failed.
In 2019, the commission denied accreditation to independent observers and misplaced portion of the overseas ballots submitted by Thai nationals.
The credibility of that election was questioned when the commission declared hours after polls closed that it would not reveal the results, as previously promised. The results were not disclosed for another 45 days.
Over 2.3 million voters cast their votes a week before the general election, scheduled for Sunday. In Bangkok, more than 800,000 voters had registered for early voting.
