Both the Democrat and Future Forward parties are claiming victory in an vote recount in Nakhon Pathom’s Constituency One.
The Future Forward party claimed that its young candidate, Ms. Sawika Limpasuwinna, received 35,707 votes in the recount, beating the Democrat candidate Lt-Col Sinthop Kaewpichit by a narrow margin of just 62 votes. Sinthop received 35,645 votes, Future Forward claimed.
Palang Pracharat candidate Thanakorn Chaovanametha came third, with 20,387 votes.
In the original count on March 24th, Ms. Sawika lost to Sinthop by 147 votes. However, she suspected the votes may have been miscounted and started rechecking the ballots cast at all polling units in the province. She then lodged a petition with the EC, demanding a formal recount.
The recount, held at Silpakorn University’s Nakhon Pathom campus, was temporarily disrupted by a 30-second blackout, but the process completed smoothly.
After the ballots were counted again, Future Forward party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit tweeted his thanks to the party’s staff, prospective MPs and, in particular, the so-called Futurista, for their role in observing the 12-hour recount.
Democrat deputy party leader Sathit Pitudecha, however, claimed late Sunday night that its candidate received 35,711 votes in the recount of ballots from 245 polling units, beating the Future Forward candidate by a razor thin margin of just 4 votes. Ms. Sawika, he said, won 35,707 votes.
Results of the recount will be announced by the EC today.
