More than six weeks after Thailand held one of its most important general elections, the Election Commission today finally announced its official results for 349 constituencies and nationwide and endorsed the 349 newly-elected MPs.
The remaining constituency whose result is yet to be announced is Constituency 8 in Chiang Mai where the EC had earlier scheduled a poll re-run for May 28th after the winning candidate was disqualified for alleged election irregularities.
The next step is for the EC to announce the allocation of the 150 party-list seats, which are expected by May 9th. This has become a contentious issue with differing opinions, between the EC and especially the Pheu Thai camp, on the formulae to be used in the calculation.
The EC pressed ahead with the announcement of the official results of the election in 349 constituencies despite opposition from a candidate for the disbanded Thai Raksa Chart Party, Ruangkrai Leekitwattana, who today asked the EC to withhold the announcement of the poll results in 10 constituencies.
Ruangkrai has contended that ten election candidates of the Palang Pracharat, Bhumjaithai and Democrat parties, contesting the ten constituencies, were not qualified to run in the election because of their media shareholdings.
The former Pheu Thai legal advisor said the EC should wait for rulings from the Constitutional Court before making the announcement, claiming that the EC still has until May 24th deadline instead of May 9th as widely understood.
The announcement of poll results in 349 out of a total of 350 constituencies, and the subsequent announcement of party-list MPs tomorrow or Thursday, will make it possible for parliament to open to perform its legislative duty.
If it is found afterward that any MPs broke the election law, the EC could disqualify them by referring the cases to the Constitutional Court.
