Watchdog calls for EC to address flaws and issues, announce official election result as soon as possible

[snoop1130]

Watchdog calls for EC to address flaws and issues, announce official election result as soon as possible

By Pratch Rujivanarom 
The Nation

 

 

An international election-observer group on Tuesday urged the Election Commission to announce the official result of the general election as soon as possible, in order to ensure the transparency and integrity of the poll and prevent any suspicions escalating into distrust and conflict, particularly in regard to doubtful unofficial-votes counting.

 

The Asian Network for Free Election (ANFREL) called on the EC to quickly address all of the flaws and issues that had been found in Sunday’s election and disclose the official election outcome to the public, otherwise the election may be regarded as untrustworthy and illegitimate.

 

The watchdog announced its petition to the EC during a press conference in Bangkok on the disclosure of its interim report on the international election-observation mission to the national election.

 

Amaël Vier, ANFREL’s programme officer for Capacity Building and International Election Observation, said it was necessary for the EC to address all issues, including doubtful unofficial-votes counting, that both observers and voters had seen emerging from the election process, in order to encourage and rebuild trust in the country’s elections.

 

“With a voter turnout of just over 65 per cent, it is safe to say that the people still believe in the ballot and the prospect of change it can bring,” Vier said.

 

“These problems and flaws in the election process are jeopardising the people’s trust in the elections, so the EC should promptly clear up all of the public suspicions before these suspicions escalate into distrust and political conflicts,” he added.

 

He also highlighted that due to many fundamental democratic shortcomings in the election, ANFREL had concluded in its interim report that Thailand’s 2019 general election was unfair, lacking in transparency and far from a standardised election.

 

“The ECT [Election Commission of Thailand] could have improved the quality of the process by doing more to disseminate information on the polling procedures, which could have alleviated much of the public’s doubts regarding the process,” he said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30366571

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-03-26

[webfact]

EC must clear public doubts, announce results immediately, insist observer groups

By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM 
THE NATION

 

 

MANY international and local observers have taken the Election Commission (EC) to task for failing to hold a fair and transparent ballot, and are calling on the commission to tackle the problems immediately before they start adversely affecting the legitimacy of Thailand’s first general election in nearly a decade.

 

Facing a major public outcry over suspicious election processes and problematic vote counting, the EC has been warned by both international and local election observers to promptly resolve all public doubts and prevent the escalation of political problems and conflicts.

 

During the release of an interim report by Asian Network for Free Election (ANFREL) in Bangkok yesterday, the network’s official Amael Vier said the election did not meet international standards in terms of fairness and trustworthiness. 

 

He said that though ANFREL observers say the balloting had gone quite smoothly, they still detected many fundamental shortcomings, which could destroy people’s trust and eventually invalidate this election’s results. The observers monitored the election at 492 polling stations across 30 provinces from the start of the voting until the votes were being counted.

 

He said some of the serious flaws included overly restrictive regulations regarding the validity of ballot marks, poor education among the public – which contributed to the unusually high 2.8 million invalid ballots – lack of participation of relevant stakeholders and unfair rules that heavily tilted the tally to benefit pro-junta parties. 

 

Chiewpirun Chaoon, coordinator of We Watch Network, a group of local observers, said his network has received more than 2,000 reports of electoral fraud and other issues from volunteer election observers nationwide. 

 

“Our 4,000 volunteers nationwide witnessed many cases of suspicious conduct and procedures by EC and local officials,” Chiewpirun said. “Volunteers were not even allowed into some polling stations to monitor the process, which is a clear obstruction in making the poll transparent.” 

 

Due to these problems, ANFREL’s Vier suggested that the EC immediately address these flaws and clear every suspicion by making the election process transparent and announcing the official results as soon as possible.

 

“The lack of transparency and cooperation between the EC and other electoral stakeholders has severely limited the outflow of information, thereby fuelling distrust in the process and the institution itself,” Vier said.

 

“The EC could have improved the quality of the process by doing more to disseminate information on the polling procedures, which could have alleviated much of the public’s doubts regarding the process.”

 

Meanwhile, Maja Kocijancic, spokesperson for the European Union’s foreign affairs and security policy, congratulated Thailand for successfully holding a first fully-contested election since 2011, but also urged the authorities to announce the election result as quickly as possible.

 

“The democratic election constitutes an important step towards restoring a democratic form of governance and Thai citizens have participated in large numbers to this exercise, to shape the future of their country,” Kocijancic said.

 

“We look forward to the announcement of the election results as soon as possible. It is also important that any reported irregularities are resolved swiftly and transparently.”

 

Peter Haymond, the US Embassy’s charge d’affaires, echoed Kocijancic, saying his country looks forward to hearing the final outcome of the first general election after many years of junta rule in the country. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30366596

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-03-27

[chama]

Someone isn't thinking clearly! The EC can't address flaws and issues they intentionally put in place to allow them to work their magic! 

[Sydebolle]

Are the seven men already back from their 12 million Baht fact-finding trip through Europe and the US? 

[candide]

I just read the explanations from the EC in the 'other' journal about why the number of ballots is higher than the number of registered voters.

The explanation is that could have been the result of voters registering but not waiting to get the ballots from officials.

Wait a moment! If people register but don't vote because they are not patient enough, there should be LESS ballots than registred voters, right? Not more ballots than registered voters!

 

They are so shameless that they are able to serve any completely incoherent BS as an explanation!

[JAG]

They have announced the (a) result.

 

The Junta party won the "popular vote". 

 

That is the "fix" which will allow the Senate to swing into action.

 

The EC have done their job.