Candidate Warns Of High-tech Vote Buying

Candidate warns of high-tech vote buying

BANGKOK: -- Election candidates are harnessing the latest technology to purchase votes, asking camera phone users to take photographs of their completed ballot papers as evidence of the party they voted for, according to a Thai Rak Thai Party candidate in Thailand's southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat.

Mr. Aree Pholrattanasit said that the high-tech method of vote buying had already been piloted during advance election held during the last weekend in the province's Thung Yai district, where young people used the photographic evidence of their ballot choice to receive money from the candidates purchasing their votes.

Although naming no names, Mr, Aree alleged that the candidate opposing him was involved.

He also accused his political opponents of holding parties for 20-30 young people every evening in an attempt to buy their votes, and warned that further voting fraud would be inevitable during the 6 February general election unless the Election Commission of Thailand (EC) took urgent action by banning the use of mobile phones in voting stations.

"I'm in the process of writing a letter to the provincial EC, calling on them to launch an urgent investigation. At the moment candidates are entering the houses of kamnan and village heads every day to pay out money", Mr. Aree said.

He also noted that posters featuring former prime minister Chuan Leekpai, the head of the opposition Democrat Party, were confusing local voters in thinking that he was a candidate for their constituency.

--TNA 2005-01-31