Thailand’s Election Commission (EC) is today scheduled to consider over a dozen complaints of alleged poll irregularities to determine whether by-elections will have to be organized.
EC Secretary-General Jarungvith Phumma said that the cases have been investigated by poll probe teams and are ready for EC deliberation.
The EC has been under pressure, from parties contesting the March 24th general election, to decide on the alleged poll irregularity cases quickly so that official poll results can be announced by May 9th.
Palang Pracharat party’s election campaign chief, Mr. Somsak Thepsuthin, yesterday urged the EC to resolve the alleged poll fraud cases as soon as possible, noting that there are only two Sundays, April 21st and April 28th, on which fresh polls could be held before the May 9th deadline.
Early by-elections, if needed, will give the EC more time to calculate the party-list seat allocations and to announce the official results of the election so parties have time to discuss government formation.
Somsak also voiced the party’s objection to the idea of a national unity government, which was also rejected by the Pheu Thai party.
The contentious issue of the calculation for allocation of all the 150 party-list seats is still waiting for a ruling by the Constitutional Court after the EC decided to refer the matter to the court for consideration.