Southern Crackdown On ‘ghost’ Voters

Narathiwat launches crackdown on ‘ghost’ voters

REGIONAL DESK: -- Officials in Thailand's southern border province of Narathiwat have launched a crackdown on ‘ghost’ voters amid growing concerns over non-existent people being registered to vote, while Malaysia warned of possible economic chaos as a tide of Thai migrant workers began flowing back across the border in preparation for the next Sunday’s ballot.

Mr. Wichai Phenpattanakul, head of the Narathiwat registrar’s division, today spoke of an ‘unusually high’ number of people in the province requesting new ID cards for those allegedly lost or expired in order that they could take part in the vote.

The practice has been particularly prevalent in Yee-ngo district, where 28,823 requests have been made for new cards despite the fact that only 26,817 people in the district are entitled to hold them.

A similar problem has also been encountered in Su-ngai Kolok.

Mr. Wichai said that officials were carefully checking the details of all new requests amid fears that requests could be made for people who did not actually exist, including people already deceased.

Over the past few days the border region’s problems have been compounded by heavy shortfalls of Malaysian Ringgit notes as Thai migrant workers cross the border.

It is thought that the Malaysian ringgits are being used by Thai workers to sell votes, in the hope that the use of foreign currency will enable them to escape detection.

The Malaysian authorities fear that the problem could have an impact on businesses, which are becoming unable to offer change to their customers.

Violations have also been noted in the country's southern province of Prachuab Khiri Khan, where Mr. Sophon Nakhwan, the head of the local election observer team (P-Net) warned today of cases in which non-existent people were being placed on the electoral register.

He also noted that the electoral registers of army camps were not being kept up to date, leaving a loophole for election fraud.

--TNA 2005-02-03