The application deadline for those interested in running in the Senate election is set for May 13, three days after the current senators complete their terms.
Today, the Cabinet agreed to the timeline for the election, which has been criticised as being overly complex as proposed by the Election Commission (EC), and an additional 227 million baht from the Central Fund for the EC to stage the Senate elections on top of about Bt1.2 billion allocated to the EC for the election purposes, said Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.
Twenty professional groups are eligible to apply for candidacy. These include:
- Civil service
- Judicial system
- Law enforcement
- Education
- Medicine
- Agriculture
- Private sector employees
- Real estate
- Environment
- Energy
- Public utilities
- SMEs
- Tourism and hotels
- Elderly people and ethnic groups
- Entertainment and the arts
- Women’s groups
- Freelance
- Media
- Sport
- Literature
The district-level level poll is set for June 9, the provincial-level on June 16 and the national vote is set on June 26. The final election results will be announced on July 2. Over 210,000 people have informed the Election Commission (EC) of their wish to run as a Senate candidate and the EC expects at least 100,000 candidates to run.
