Bangkok Police To Be Equipped With Cameras And Meters To Prevent Poll Rigging

[webfact]

Police to be equipped with cameras and meters to prevent poll rigging
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Police personnel dispatched to polling stations throughout Bangkok tomorrow will be equipped with counting meters and shoulder-mounted cameras in a bid to prevent electoral fraud in the capital's gubernatorial polls.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Lt-General Kamronwit Thoopkrachang said that to assist the balloting, the Metropolitan Police Bureau had purchased more than 10,000 counting meters to record voter turnout.

Two police officers will be deployed at each polling station and some 1,000 policemen will be mobilised to reinforce the regular forces if deemed necessary, he said.

"At polling stations, one of the two police officers in charge will carry a security camera to report any incident in real time," he said.

Kamronwit pledged full efforts to prevent any attempts to rig the voting and its outcome. He voiced readiness yesterday to keep peace and assist in the balloting process.

National Police chief General Adul Sangsingkaew said the security cameras would enable the police to deal with balloting violations in a speedy manner.

Police will assist district and electoral officials to investigate any violations in connection with tomorrow's vote, Adul said.

A total of 14,096 policemen would be on duty for the balloting at 6,548 polling stations.

Election-law experts will be on hand to deal with any alleged balloting offences, Kamronwit said.

He voiced puzzlement that three Bangkok districts - Bang Phlat, Taling Chan and Kanna Yao - had not requested police deployment at polling stations.

"I don't know the reason for the objection but police are duty-bound to keep peace regardless of what the three districts decided," he said.

On Wednesday, Lak Si police launched an investigation into the suspicious transfer of domicile involving 17 individuals, including three whose names coincided with those reported as dead.

The ruling Pheu Thai Party has alerted election officials of suspected tampering of voter lists in Phasi Charoen and Wang Thong Lang districts, deputy spokesperson Sunisa Lertpakawat said. She added that the party also found a case in Bang Khae where six bogus voters were added to a household with one eligible voter.

_ The Nation’s senior editor Tulsathit Taptim will begin his live blogging on the Bangkok election today. Follow the race with him on our website (nationmultimedia.com).


-- The Nation 2013-03-02

[arthurboy]

"At polling stations, one of the two police officers in charge will carry a security camera to report any incident in real time," he said.

They could also use these gadgets to film themselves engaging in corrupt practices and then directly upload to youtube, thus saving the honest citizens of Thailand the time and trouble.

Now, that would be a worthwhile community service.

[SOTIRIOS]

....how will they prevent vote buying.........

[NanLaew]

A new concept in election monitoring is being pioneered in Bangkok. I am sure that the international poll watching agencies will be lining up to get the details of exactly what cameras and meters the local cops will be using and how they work so they can upgrade their own current systems of independent, eyes-on personell that must be quite difficult to maintain with any semblance of impartiality or the possibility of being tainted by corruption.

[Fozfromoz]

"I don't know the reason for the objection but police are duty-bound to keep peace regardless of what the three districts decided," he said.

Police are duty bound to do lots of things. They just don't.

Not sure how the counting meter will work, but only thing that will get their arse up off the chair would be a Baht Meter.

[oldsailor35]

I wonder if they will work as well as the breathalizers ?

[Pimay1]

I wonder if they will turn the cameras off if Ms. Thida arrived at a polling station?

[rubl]

I assume that there will be no filming in the somewhat open voting stations. I mean peaceful observers can't come too close due to privacy reasons apart from the Election Law. The same should be applied to the police with cameras.

Of course, in no way am I suggesting that the police officers are instructed to make sure the right candidate gets elected, nor that they may feel sympathetic towards the Pheu Thai candidate Police General Dr. Pongsapat

[rubl]

Almost forgot it, but quickly walked to buy myself a beer. 18:10 (aka 6.10PM) 7/11 already stopped selling alcohol. In the Mom&Pop shop next door the lady looked at the clock and said 'OK, but quickly'.

It seems the police is really into enforcing the law, or at least this 'no alcohol around elections' law. If only they were always that attentive

[dcutman]

Almost forgot it, but quickly walked to buy myself a beer. 18:10 (aka 6.10PM) 7/11 already stopped selling alcohol. In the Mom&Pop shop next door the lady looked at the clock and said 'OK, but quickly'.

It seems the police is really into enforcing the law, or at least this 'no alcohol around elections' law. If only they were always that attentive

I hope you stocked up, it is going to be a long day tomorrow, with all the police making video,making sure the voting goes as planned, it could be the Mom & Pop shop might be intimidated by all this.

[rubl]

Almost forgot it, but quickly walked to buy myself a beer. 18:10 (aka 6.10PM) 7/11 already stopped selling alcohol. In the Mom&Pop shop next door the lady looked at the clock and said 'OK, but quickly'.

It seems the police is really into enforcing the law, or at least this 'no alcohol around elections' law. If only they were always that attentive

I hope you stocked up, it is going to be a long day tomorrow, with all the police making video,making sure the voting goes as planned, it could be the Mom & Pop shop might be intimidated by all this.

The voting station is before and opposite my appartment, two sub station one side, two the other side. Today chairs and small nightstands with a drawer (at least they look like that) have been brought. Tomorrow early they'll be setup. Roadside taped off to warn people not to park there.

The Mom&Pop shop is about 120 meters further down the road. Normally past midnight lots of taxi drivers relaxing, drinking whatever, joking a bit. Shop also sells in small quantities, single cigarettes, lau dong, a bottle of beer with a few straws, things like that. Kids coming from the small subsois buying somethings, obviously for their parents of course.

Luckily we don't have elections that often, bad for business

[Songhua]

RoboCop to the rescue. With a little plastic click counter and a camera that probably doesn't work (are these wifi cameras which are being monitored somewhere in real time or are thousands of hours of footage going to be reviewed later?).

Wonder if they'll have a mini-gun mounted in their torso?

[Credo]

The only thing the police need to be equipped with is honesty and integrity.

[dcutman]

Almost forgot it, but quickly walked to buy myself a beer. 18:10 (aka 6.10PM) 7/11 already stopped selling alcohol. In the Mom&Pop shop next door the lady looked at the clock and said 'OK, but quickly'.

It seems the police is really into enforcing the law, or at least this 'no alcohol around elections' law. If only they were always that attentive

I hope you stocked up, it is going to be a long day tomorrow, with all the police making video,making sure the voting goes as planned, it could be the Mom & Pop shop might be intimidated by all this.

The voting station is before and opposite my appartment, two sub station one side, two the other side. Today chairs and small nightstands with a drawer (at least they look like that) have been brought. Tomorrow early they'll be setup. Roadside taped off to warn people not to park there.

The Mom&Pop shop is about 120 meters further down the road. Normally past midnight lots of taxi drivers relaxing, drinking whatever, joking a bit. Shop also sells in small quantities, single cigarettes, lau dong, a bottle of beer with a few straws, things like that. Kids coming from the small subsois buying somethings, obviously for their parents of course.

Luckily we don't have elections that often, bad for business

Good luck!, hope you have some time to give some updates and observations, to us members not living in BKK. Or is that against election laws?

[Payboy]

The only thing the police need to be equipped with is honesty and integrity.

Sorry, you're asking for a complete system reformat. Not possible on current model.

[rubl]

Almost forgot it, but quickly walked to buy myself a beer. 18:10 (aka 6.10PM) 7/11 already stopped selling alcohol. In the Mom&Pop shop next door the lady looked at the clock and said 'OK, but quickly'.

It seems the police is really into enforcing the law, or at least this 'no alcohol around elections' law. If only they were always that attentive

I hope you stocked up, it is going to be a long day tomorrow, with all the police making video,making sure the voting goes as planned, it could be the Mom & Pop shop might be intimidated by all this.

The voting station is before and opposite my appartment, two sub station one side, two the other side. Today chairs and small nightstands with a drawer (at least they look like that) have been brought. Tomorrow early they'll be setup. Roadside taped off to warn people not to park there.

The Mom&Pop shop is about 120 meters further down the road. Normally past midnight lots of taxi drivers relaxing, drinking whatever, joking a bit. Shop also sells in small quantities, single cigarettes, lau dong, a bottle of beer with a few straws, things like that. Kids coming from the small subsois buying somethings, obviously for their parents of course.

Luckily we don't have elections that often, bad for business

Good luck!, hope you have some time to give some updates and observations, to us members not living in BKK. Or is that against election laws?

During the voting period 08:00 - 15:00 I may walk passed, maybe even stop a moment to observe, but I don't think I'll see much interesting. Apart from the police taping the scene of course. I don't think I should do that.

More interesting is when the station closes and they start counting votes. In July, 2011 they had a big board where they marked votes for the candidates and parties. Probably they'll do the same this year. I could see that it seemed a close race between the Pheu Thai and the Democrats candidate, at least in this station of district 5. The district ended up voting in the Pheu Thai lady candidate k. Leelavadee V. Probably about 5% 'no votes' and invalid votes, as far as I understood the administration. All four substations did their own counting and it didn't seem they would consolidate all station votes into one result table. Maybe I just was too impatient. Counting and registering is close to watching grass grow, IMHO.

I will refrain from watching the counting with a glass of beer in my hand. The only question I have for now of course, is what colour shirt should I wear. I'm afraid I only have yellow, pink, green and blue

[Buchholz]

In the Mom&Pop shop next door the lady looked at the clock and said 'OK, but quickly'.

.

It's the snippets of everyday life like this that make life in Thailand all worth the while.

.

[Thai at Heart]

Having a polling station for every 1500 people can't be conducive to stopping fraud.

How the hell do they know who is registered where?

[Thai at Heart]

BMA bought 10000 new laptops to review each stream in real time?

[GentlemanJim]

So a recently retired Chief of Police, running in the Elections for PTP, whose owners 'own' the police, are going to have the police monitor for unfair play! Mmmmm me spots a flaw in the plan here me thinks. Are these the same BKK Police, who got a protest together because some people were saying bad things about the PTP and reds? SInce when do a nations police monitor elections? Monitor security at elections, fine, but to monitor the electoral process....not fine!

This ensures that if the PTP candidate does not win, there will be a mass of camera evidence from police and numbers counted going in to polling stations, may at the click of the policeman's thumb suddenly increase dramatically, and unfair play be levied at whoever wins. It is so blatantly obvious, it is criminal. I never cease to be amazed by just what the Thai people will sit back and tolerate.

[lemoncake]

....how will they prevent vote buying.........

Easy

Pay the policeman with camera 500 baht

[Scott]

A post with altered quotes has been deleted. Please do not alter other poster's quotes.

[hellodolly]

....how will they prevent vote buying.........

That was my question.

All I could think of they will not be able to get paid at the polling station.

Now if they had been given that equipment a while back and followed some of the various candidates workers they might have stopped some of it.

[lemoncake]

....how will they prevent vote buying.........

That was my question.

All I could think of they will not be able to get paid at the polling station.

Now if they had been given that equipment a while back and followed some of the various candidates workers they might have stopped some of it.

Where there's a will there's a way