Thai Raksachart party strategy committee chairman Chaturon Chaisaeng has accused the junta of “taking advantage to the last minute” of rival political parties by allowing the Election Commission to redraw constituency boundaries.
The former Pheu Thai party’s core member made his allegation in a tweet today after the EC announced on Wednesday that it had finished its task of redrawing the boundaries of 350 constituencies nationwide.
Chaturon said that the EC had earlier completed its task of drawing constituency boundaries by taking into account feedbacks received from all stakeholders from public hearings.
But the latest mapping of constituency boundaries had no feedbacks from the public, but only feedbacks from just a handful of people submitted through “special channels.”
Describing the EC’s redrawn map as “magical,” he accused the junta of “taking advantage to the last minute”.
The new constituency map has become effective today after its publication in the Royal Gazette. Political parties can now study the map and decide in which constituencies their hopeful candidates should be fielded.
The redrawing of the constituency boundaries was made possible by an executive order issued by Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha as head of the National Council for Peace and Order to extend the time for the EC to do the job following complaints of boundaries of several constituencies.
According to the election timeline tentatively set by the EC, the organic bill on the election of MPs will come into force on December 11 to be followed by the issuance of an election Royal Decree which is due to become effective on December 26 and two days afterward on December 28 the EC will announce the election date and dates for applying for the candidacy of the election tentatively set on Janauary 14-18.
