Political parties and civil society groups have raised concerns over widespread irregularities during advance voting, warning the problems could undermine public confidence ahead of Thailand’s general election scheduled for Sunday. The Election Commission (EC) has apologised for the mistakes, while facing mounting pressure to investigate and take responsibility.
Advance voting was held nationwide a week before the poll and recorded high participation, particularly among voters casting ballots outside their home constituencies. In Bangkok alone, 845,853 voters registered for advance voting, with 740,966 turning out, representing 87.6%. Similar turnout levels were reported in many provinces across the country.
Concerns emerged after reports of multiple procedural errors at polling stations. These included incorrectly addressed ballot envelopes, raising fears that votes could be misallocated or invalidated, as well as incomplete or missing candidate lists, disappeared candidate leaflets, outdated QR code data and confusion among polling officials. In some cases, voters were initially denied the right to vote despite their names appearing in the official system.
The People’s Party (PP), Pheu Thai Party and legal watchdog iLaw have urged the EC to conduct a thorough investigation and accept responsibility. The PP said it would submit an urgent letter to the EC, calling for an immediate inquiry and the removal of officials accused of providing false information. It warned that failure to hold those responsible to account could expose the commission itself to legal liability for dereliction of duty.
Rukchanok Srinork, a PP list candidate, said candidate lists were missing from notice boards in several provinces. She said some EC officials told voters that the party’s candidates had been disqualified, a claim she said was untrue. She also criticised cases where QR codes linked to information from the 2023 election rather than the current contest, describing envelope labelling errors as unacceptable.
The Pheu Thai Party reported concerns after deploying observers to 16 provinces, particularly in areas where advance voting registrations had increased sharply. iLaw said it had received multiple complaints, including one in Nonthaburi where officials wrote the wrong constituency number on ballot envelopes for a group of voters. While describing the errors as widespread, iLaw said there was no clear evidence of coordinated electoral fraud.
Former election commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn said most problems appeared to result from human error and flawed system design rather than deliberate wrongdoing. He criticised the manual process of writing constituency details on envelopes as overly complex and prone to mistakes, suggesting pre-printed labels or a centralised system could reduce errors.
Bangkokpost reported that EC secretary-general Sawaeng Boonmee apologised for the mistakes but urged the public not to unfairly accuse election staff, many of whom are volunteers. He said documented errors could still be corrected through established procedures and called on officials not to lose morale ahead of the general election.
Key Takeaways
• Political parties warn advance voting errors could undermine confidence in Sunday’s election.
• The EC has apologised, citing human error, while facing calls for urgent investigation.
• Observers report widespread mistakes but no clear evidence of coordinated fraud.
Adapted by ASEAN Now from Bangkokpost 2026-02-04
