Retired Pol Lt Gen Kamronwit Thoopkrajang won the re-run election for mayor of the Pathum Thani Provincial Administrative Organisation (PAO) on Sunday, attracting 187,397 votes against his closest rival, Charn Puangpetch, who received 119,889, according to the unofficial vote count at 8.30pm.
The two other candidates, Noppadol Laddayaem and Athiwat Sornnoei, received 9,828 and 7,652 votes respectively.
The re-run of the election was held yesterday after the Election Commission invalidated the victory of Charn Puangpetch in the PAO original election held on June 30th, after he violated the local election law by holding a party for voters.
Conceding defeat at about 7.45pm last night, Charn told the media that he thought his loss was attributable to the rain and that the voters might have become bored with repeated elections.
Kamronwit, meanwhile, said that the PAO mayoral election should be over, so that the administration could start functioning for the people in Pathum Thani.
Yutthaporn Issarachai, a political scientist, attributed Charn’s defeat to the fact that he did not receive support from the Pheu Thai party, as he had in the June 30th election, when several key party members campaigned for him.
He also said that Kamronwit, who lost to Charn by a narrow margin in the last vote, had managed to convince many voters to switch sides.
