Twenty candidates registered their candidacy for the Bangkok gubernatorial election yesterday (Thursday), the first day of the five-day registration period, as a senior city official predicted today that the number of candidates might not exceed 25.
No governor candidate showed up this morning at City Hall 2, in Bangkok’s Din Daeng area, to register for the May 22nd election, said Khachit Chatchavanich, the permanent secretary of the city administration.
He added, however, that three people turned up for registration to contest the councillor election in Suan Luang, Lat Phrao and Yannawa districts.
Khachit said that 343 people applied to contest the councillor elections in Bangkok’s 50 districts yesterday, with Chom Thong, Thon Buri and Wang Thong Lang districts recording the biggest numbers of nine candidates each.
After the closure of candidacy registration on April 4th, he said election officials will check the qualifications of all the candidates within seven days, after which a list of the qualified candidates will be announced.
Khachit said that the maximum amount of campaign spending by each candidate in the gubernatorial election is limited to 49 million baht, whereas the spending by city councillor candidates varies from 820,000 baht to slightly over one million baht, depending on the size of the district in which they are standing.
Bangkok election committee director Samran Tanpanich said that all candidates, for both governor and councillors, are required to submit their spending reports to the committee within 90 days after Election Day. Failing that, they may have their election rights revoked for five or ten years, if the failure to submit the reports is intended to avoid scrutiny.
The Bangkok election committee has also issued rules regarding the number and location of campaign posters.
There are also areas where campaign posters are not allowed. These include road islands, flyovers, at traffic lights, near traffic signs or on walls of government buildings, on trees and power poles on dual carriageway central reservations (medians).
