by Mitch Connor

 

The Election Commission (EC) reported that the majority of vote-buying incidents during yesterday’s elections took place in Bangkok, which boasts the highest number of constituencies among all provinces. Despite this, the EC noted that the overall number of poll-related violations was lower than in previous elections.

 

EC secretary-general Sawaeng Boonmee disclosed that the commission received 163 complaints yesterday, with 58 concerning vote-buying, 55 involving fraud, and 17 about the abuse of power by state officials overseeing the elections. Vote-buying incidents were reported in various regions, although most occurred in Bangkok.

National police chief Damrongsak Kittiprapas stated that over 150,000 officers were deployed to maintain peace and order at the 94,737 polling stations countrywide. In the past two to three days, a minimum of three individuals have been charged with vote-buying. Police are also investigating incidents of campaign banner vandalism.

 

Full story: https://thethaiger.com/news/national/majority-of-vote-buying-reports-in-recent-thai-election-from-bangkok

 

-- © Copyright Thaiger 2023-05-15

 

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From what I know and have seen most of the vote buying was from the party that lost heavily, Did not hear about the winning party in Bkk shelling out cash and paying for 'supporters' to turn up at rallies- they did not need to. 

Nothing new. Always part of elections in Thailand.

How does this work. They give me money. But how do they check if I voted for them? 

Talk about having your head in the sand.  Vote buying is wide open and prevalent throughout Thailand - it's the norm, not the exception.

10 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

How does this work. They give me money. But how do they check if I voted for them? 

They can't - that's the trick.  People take the money then vote however they want.

8 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

How does this work. They give me money. But how do they check if I voted for them? 

They cannot.

In a previous election for a mayor here on Samui, a friend was given 2,000 baht to vote for a candidate, and then another 2,000 baht to vote for a different one.

I asked which one did she vote for.

Neither. She was too busy to go and vote on the day

9 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

How does this work. They give me money. But how do they check if I voted for them? 

Post-election is when the bullets start flying around. Local organizers are given cash to distribute to ensure a certain number of votes in their area. Up to them to make sure they deliver. If they don't it can be fatal. 

4 minutes ago, connda said:

Talk about having your head in the sand.  Vote buying is wide open and prevalent throughout Thailand - it's the norm, not the exception.

My Mrs & step daughter were offered nowt in Phitsanulok.

1 hour ago, webfact said:

received 163 complaints yesterday,

It's rampant then!! 

In our small Issan village the first people to stump up were Auntins crew, they paid per person to attend a rally at the temple, I forget the price, next came Phua Thai - they were offering 300B per household to attend a rally (to say rally, it was a couple of people showing a video of a big provincial rally). I dont know the ins and outs, but we live in a rental and we don't have the tabian baan, the owner went and took the 300B so "we" didn't go and didn't collect the payment.

 

Then yesterday, the wife went to the voting station at the temple with a friend and voted for PT. I asked did she collect her payment, she asked her friend if she could get her tickle, but had been told that the landlord had collected already our fee (300B) for the house. The friend knew of a local person who was in charge of distributing the pot.

 

It's not a case of someone standing outside the door and handing out brown notes.

 

I don't think MF were interested in wasting any money, I never heard they they were offering anything in our area. It was foregone that PT would get all the votes in our area. I don't even think it was necessary for PT to put their hands in their pockets, the hate for Prayut is so deep and voting red is is engrained that they would have probably won anyway.

Oh, wife just got off a call to a friend in the south - The democrats were paying 1000B per vote in Songkhla. 

 

The friend was bemoaning southerners reluctancy to change from the democrats, as MF would offer a better manifesto for all. Then the wife asked "So did you vote for Gor Gai (MF)". "Oh, no, I wanted my 1000B" she replied.

1 hour ago, Mickeymaus said:

How does this work. They give me money. But how do they check if I voted for them? 

They don't know, like our countries the Thais make their vote in a private space, so only that person knows who they have voted for. But many Thais accept money from a couple or more candidates. A couple of years back when there was some election happening here, one of the local candidates had the same surname as my wife, so when my wife went to where the all the candidates and their lackeys had gathered and were paying out the bribe money, one of the candidates checked my wife's ID and seeing she had the same surname as one of the opposite candidates, she refused to give my wife a bribe, saying my wife would obviously vote for her relative. This Thai democracy is mind boggling stuff. I asked my wife...Do you people ever ask these candidates what they will do for you? What improvements they'll implement for the district?...No, it's only about getting their mitts around the pay out. 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Despite this, the EC noted that the overall number of poll-related violations was lower than in previous elections.

we all knew the coup leader and his cronies cheated and finally 9 years later the EC agreed, it shows is never too late  555

A post containing a copyrighted image from the Bangkok Post has been removed.

Probably hard to prove - 'here's 1000 baht to get to the voting station'

2 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Probably hard to prove - 'here's 1000 baht to get to the voting station'

some people live faraway from voting stations, that's not vote buying, it's a transportation fee  555

4 hours ago, webfact said:

EC secretary-general Sawaeng Boonmee disclosed that the commission received 163 complaints yesterday, with 58 concerning vote-buying, 55 involving fraud, and 17 about the abuse of power by state officials overseeing the elections.

Just can't help themselves.

5 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

How does this work. They give me money. But how do they check if I voted for them? 

depends where you live in Thailand. If money is offered and accepted ID card must be handed over to the representative of the particular party, and that representative then goes and uses the ID cards to place votes for their party using those ID cards.  In our village one party representative turned up with 30 ID cards, for which the people had been paid 500 baht each. He was refused access to the polling booth and the poo yai baan telephoned the owners of the ID cards and they had to come to the community center and collect them and then vote. Unfortunately the police were not notified of this vote buying. Turns out that the party this particular representative was from only received 3 votes.

6 minutes ago, TigerandDog said:

depends where you live in Thailand. If money is offered and accepted ID card must be handed over to the representative of the particular party, and that representative then goes and uses the ID cards to place votes for their party using those ID cards.  In our village one party representative turned up with 30 ID cards, for which the people had been paid 500 baht each. He was refused access to the polling booth and the poo yai baan telephoned the owners of the ID cards and they had to come to the community center and collect them and then vote. Unfortunately the police were not notified of this vote buying. Turns out that the party this particular representative was from only received 3 votes.

What was the name of this party? The Naive & Corrupt Party? 

My wife's friend got 500 Baht on Friday. Which got me interested. Unfortunately we live in a different Moo just by a few houses so my wife was not able to participate. ???? And in our Moo nobody was giving out cash. What a mess. ☹️

I don't think the ballots are anonymous here, like in other countries.  My wife said her name was printed on the ballot she received.