Phuket election alcohol ban starts tonight

[webfact]

Phuket election alcohol ban starts tonight
Phuket Gazette


The ban on the sale of alcohol across Phuket starts at 6pm tonight and continues until midnight Sunday night. Image: Supplied

PHUKET: -- Phuket will face an alcohol ban starting at 6pm tonight ahead of the advance voting tomorrow for the February 2 national election.

“According to the Election Act, all alcohol sales in Phuket are banned from 6pm tonight through to midnight tomorrow because of the advance voting for the MP elections,” Phuket Election Commission (PEC) Director Kittipong Thiengkunakrit confirmed to the Phuket Gazette today.

The ban prevents all retail shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and convenience stores from selling alcohol during that period. Violators will be subject to a fine of up to 10,000 baht, six months imprisonment or both.

The nationwide ban on the sale of alcohol will return next weekend, when the sale of alcohol will be illegal from 6pm on February 1 until midnight on February 2 for the general voting in the national election.

Source: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket_news/2014/Phuket-election-alcohol-ban-starts-tonight-24403.html


-- Phuket Gazette 2014-01-25

[miseryguts]

Draconian, outdated, unpopular and generally ignored where I live.

[khwaibah]

[lee b]

Sounds like the tourists that are here are not going to be happy with this. Why should they not be allowed to drink, its not as if they are allowed to vote now...

[Thaddeus]

Sounds like the tourists that are here are not going to be happy with this. Why should they not be allowed to drink, its not as if they are allowed to vote now...

That question is asked every time, and has never received a believable answer.

[BeforeTigers]

You just have to feel sad when you see something as juvenile as this.
It shows a total lack of respect for the intelligence of the people.

That goes double for any country that will allow you to join the military before you're allowed to drink alcohol.

Pathetic.

[chooka]

The ban is in place in Chiangmai also, well at 7/11 at least as I stopped there tonight at 6.30 to get a couple of beers to take home. The fridges are secured and signs posted. I just stopped at the local mum & pop store and they are cheaper there also.

[chooka]

Draconian, outdated, unpopular and generally ignored where I live.

I don't understand this law, voting isn't compulsory in Thailand so what is the problem if someone is hungover and misses the voting? It just seems like a very strange law and what does it actually achieve?

[Local Drunk]

What has alcohol with elections or the time of day for that matter. I spoke with a local vendor at Ying Charoen Market tonight... He figures wholesalers make maybe 2 baht on every big bottle of Leo they sell . He makes maybe 6 baht for every bottle he sells and he sales it at any time of the day. He figures that the government makes about 20 baht on every bottle that is sold in this country on taxes. I pay 60 baht for a big bottle of Leo beer there.

It's ludicrous that the government should make more than triple of what the vendor takes in, and I'm thinking that I speak for every beer drinker and beer vendor in Thailand. Forget amnesty for Thaksin! This issue is really where our voices and the voices of the people should be heard.

Cheers... LD