Eight voters tore up ballots
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- Eight people tore up ballots during the election on Sunday, according to the Royal Thai Police (RTP), who vowed yesterday to provide peace and order for further advance voting on February 23.

Police in Bangkok, meanwhile, have been instructed to seal entrances to rally sites better after a shooting on Sunday night in which a motorist was injured on the Thai-Japanese Friendship Bridge.

RTP deputy spokesman Pol Maj Gen Anucha Rommayanant said the eight voters who tore up ballot papers came from Bangkok (one), Chachoengsao (two), Nakhon Ratchasima (one), Si Sa Ket (one), Nakhon Pathom (two) and Samut Songkhram (one).

Police plan to provide stricter security at constituencies where polling was unable to be conducted on Sunday, as well as for advance voting on February 23, Anucha said.

Some 60 police and army checkpoints would be set up to intercept any people carrying weapons.

A total of 287 police have been admitted to the Police General Hospital since the political rallies began on October 7, he said, and six have died.

Anucha said national police deputy chief Pol General Aek Angsananont had urged city police to control routes leading to rally sites and clearly inform motorists of road closures to prevent violence. He made the comment after Prapan Phromwisit, a 33-year-old motorist, and his passenger were hurt in a shooting at 10pm on Sunday on the Thai-Japanese Friendship Bridge.

Prapan sustained slight cuts to his left ear and face from glass and his passenger sustained shoulder injury after shots were fired at the car. He reportedly told police he was heading from Sam Yan Market to his home in Klong Toei via the bridge because a rally was being held at Sala Daeng intersection. Seeing that the bridge was blocked, Prapan tried to back his car and lowered his window to signal tailing vehicles, when he heard three gunshots and bullets shattered the window. He was rushed to Theptharin Hospital for treatment before heading home. He filed a police complaint yesterday morning.

Police collected spent bullets from the scene and are checking CCTV footage of the incident, Pathumwan investigator Pol Lt-Colonel Sanchai Matkhamchan said.


-- The Nation 2014-02-04

They should be hung drawn and quartered for such a horrendous breach of electoral law which has not only bismirched the reputation of thailand, but democracy itself.

If only Thailand had a selfless protector of the country to stop such things and save Thailand from democracy itself.

Meanwhile in other news, people are dying for democracy......

It's not big news that eight Thais "tore up" their ballots. It's a shame, and millions did die in WWII and Vietnam for Thailand's right to carry on as a corrupt selfish nation.

What an unspeakable and unheard of crime!

Wow what a crime indeed! Meanwhile Mr. Bush still walks free...........................

the police will probably catch the ballot tearers before they catch the protest killers seeing it was against the ptp, redshirts and thaksin, far more important than the red shirts that killed protesters.

A total of 287 police have been admitted to the Police General Hospital since the political rallies began on October 7, he said, and six have died.

Cough Cough.......... what?

Wow what a crime indeed! Meanwhile Mr. Bush still walks free...........................

Get a grip on reality.

Wow what a crime indeed! Meanwhile Mr. Bush still walks free...........................[/quo

What.....????

It's not big news that eight Thais "tore up" their ballots. It's a shame, and millions did die in WWII and Vietnam for Thailand's right to carry on as a corrupt selfish nation.

8 Thais tore up ballots!

Are you also referring to that forgotten chapter (by Thais) in the history of this country and never taught in schools in Thailand (at any level) when the Japanese army occupied Thailand without armed opposition?

That event led to the infamous Kanchaburi hard labor camp (today a tourist attraction generating revenue for the country) in which mainly British and Australian soldiers worked and died. Add to that: Thailand declared war to the UK and the USA to show the Japanese occupiers that they were loyal to them.

8 Thais tore up ballots! What's the big deal? Thainess overrules principles and duties and...the inconvenient Rule of Law which is an alien concept to Thainess.

Wow what a crime indeed! Meanwhile Mr. Bush still walks free...........................[/quo

What.....????

Guilty on 2 counts:

Not only a non sequitur (look it up) but also Sophistry (look it up)

It's not big news that eight Thais "tore up" their ballots. It's a shame, and millions did die in WWII and Vietnam for Thailand's right to carry on as a corrupt selfish nation.

8 Thais tore up ballots!

Are you also referring to that forgotten chapter (by Thais) in the history of this country and never taught in schools in Thailand (at any level) when the Japanese army occupied Thailand without armed opposition?

That event led to the infamous Kanchaburi hard labor camp (today a tourist attraction generating revenue for the country) in which mainly British and Australian soldiers worked and died. Add to that: Thailand declared war to the UK and the USA to show the Japanese occupiers that they were loyal to them.

8 Thais tore up ballots! What's the big deal? Thainess overrules principles and duties and...the inconvenient Rule of Law which is an alien concept to Thainess.

A good point,however in addition to the Americans few British many were many Dutch prisoners from Indonesia and other races,of course the vaste majority of ictims were local.My own father was in Burma and the majority of their casulaities were Indian and African soldiers conscripted to die for the British Empire.

It's not big news that eight Thais "tore up" their ballots. It's a shame, and millions did die in WWII and Vietnam for Thailand's right to carry on as a corrupt selfish nation.

8 Thais tore up ballots!

Are you also referring to that forgotten chapter (by Thais) in the history of this country and never taught in schools in Thailand (at any level) when the Japanese army occupied Thailand without armed opposition?

That event led to the infamous Kanchaburi hard labor camp (today a tourist attraction generating revenue for the country) in which mainly British and Australian soldiers worked and died. Add to that: Thailand declared war to the UK and the USA to show the Japanese occupiers that they were loyal to them.

8 Thais tore up ballots! What's the big deal? Thainess overrules principles and duties and...the inconvenient Rule of Law which is an alien concept to Thainess.

There was armed resistance, albeit in token. But they had no chance and either way the country would be occupied; whether it was a peaceful occupation or a brutal occupation depended on those first few days.

You bring up the kanchanaburi railway, does this also mean that the danes and their "daness" are guilty for not offering any resistance to nazi Germany and helping the nazis round up jews, or indonesians and their "indoness" for cooperating with the japanese in supplying them with war material, the identities of dutch and mixed-white citizens and the locations of allied troops in the initial stages of invasion?

You tell people to "look it up" but maybe YOU should look up historical facts before you start typing on that keyboard!

It's not big news that eight Thais "tore up" their ballots. It's a shame, and millions did die in WWII and Vietnam for Thailand's right to carry on as a corrupt selfish nation.

8 Thais tore up ballots!

Are you also referring to that forgotten chapter (by Thais) in the history of this country and never taught in schools in Thailand (at any level) when the Japanese army occupied Thailand without armed opposition?

That event led to the infamous Kanchaburi hard labor camp (today a tourist attraction generating revenue for the country) in which mainly British and Australian soldiers worked and died. Add to that: Thailand declared war to the UK and the USA to show the Japanese occupiers that they were loyal to them.

8 Thais tore up ballots! What's the big deal? Thainess overrules principles and duties and...the inconvenient Rule of Law which is an alien concept to Thainess.

There was armed resistance, albeit in token. But they had no chance and either way the country would be occupied; whether it was a peaceful occupation or a brutal occupation depended on those first few days.

You bring up the kanchanaburi railway, does this also mean that the danes and their "daness" are guilty for not offering any resistance to nazi Germany and helping the nazis round up jews, or indonesians and their "indoness" for cooperating with the japanese in supplying them with war material, the identities of dutch and mixed-white citizens and the locations of allied troops in the initial stages of invasion?

You tell people to "look it up" but maybe YOU should look up historical facts before you start typing on that keyboard!

Token resistance? The police in Samut Phrakan were not aware that Pibun had given the go ahead to the Japanese to occupy Thailand. No sooner they fired one shot when the call came from Bangkok ordering them to stand down and let the Japanese do as they wanted. I am talking about a country who is selective in its claims to patriotism.

Since you digressed from the issue, I will add that I am thinking of a country (Philippines) that fought the Japanese army when the odds against them were insurmountable. A supreme example of integrity and patriotism can be found in Leonidas with his 300 Greek patriots confronting Artaxerxes army of hundreds of thousands in Thermopylae. "Stand down and surrender your weapons" was the message from Artaxerxes. "If you want our weapons, come and take them from us," such was Leonidas response. Compare these 2 examples to the ones you mentioned.

In your egalitarian, pseudo humanistic discourse, you use sophistry and a non sequitur. The issue is Thailand. Not a comparative study of countries that decided to wave a white flag instead of emulating the Filipinos or Greeks.

Usually the cowards, in their safe retreats, are the ones writing and rewriting history.

Edited February 5, 201412 yr by pisico

Put them in jail for 15 years thats even worse than picking mushrooms illegally ... <sarcasm>

This is clearly the work of smuggled Cambodians

Edited February 5, 201412 yr by pancakeman

I think I missed something here. The title is about 8 (seriously?) people tearing up ballots but the story is about the shooting on the Thai-Japan bridge? I'm confused with Thai journalism.

Lol look at this poor, obviously uneducated man trying to sound smart. No, my post was not meant to be "egalitarian" or "pseudo-humanism" because it had nothing to do with the rights and equality for all races, it was an attempt to educate you that when confronted against large odds, that is what tends to happen. They were nice words which I'm sure stretched your pathetic vocabulary to its limits, but I'm afraid that 1) this is not the context you use them and 2) it was not my argument anyway.

You bring up the greeks at thermopylae and the Philippines. Awesome, I say, except once again that wasn't the point. The point was to show that not just the thais are "guilty" (as somehow surrendering is akin to guilt, you would make a fine imperial japanese soldier!) of surrendering, but some of your beloved western countries as well. And even then, the thai society as a whole during ww2 was not complicit to the japanese at all, constantly supplying the allies with information on jap movements, compared to the indonesians who 80% complied to the japanese rulers and only started resistance efforts when they realised the japanese weren't really genuine about their 'east asian co-operation sphere'. Get the point?

I probably should point out - artaxerxes is not the xerxes whi invaded Greece in 481BC. Artaxerxes refers to many persian emperors AFTER Xerxes I, the most famous being Artaxerxes II who fought against his brother (or nephew?) who claimed the throne backed by the satrapies of anatolia and 10,000 greek mercenaries, all detailed in Xenophon's 'Anabelisis'. Also, it was not 300 spartans who held the pass at thermopylae but a full complement of 2000 as well as 2000 thespians with the athenians holding the sea flank; it was only after they were betrayed when the army withdrew and left the 300 as a rearguard. But its nice to get historical information from hollywood I guess.

Last but not least, you do realise that in 1941 the Philippines was an american protectorate, and were therefore FORCED to fight?

Edited February 8, 201412 yr by sadhukar

I think I missed something here. The title is about 8 (seriously?) people tearing up ballots but the story is about the shooting on the Thai-Japan bridge? I'm confused with Thai journalism.

journalism - surely you jest.

The history lessons are all well and good but seems a major step from the tearing up of 8 ballot papers.

And by-the-way, not all Thais during WWII were on the side of the Japanese, there was a considerable anti-Japanese underground in operation, a little know side to the little known history of Thai / Japanese relations during this period.

Probably a disgruntled yellow shirt voter, who for the last 10 or so years has seen his/her party loose election after election.

Beneath the torn ballot, it's an expression of frustration at the opposition democrat party who has utterly failed at formulating any attractive policies or gaining the trust of the electorate.

It's not big news that eight Thais "tore up" their ballots. It's a shame, and millions did die in WWII and Vietnam for Thailand's right to carry on as a corrupt selfish nation.

Can't see any connection with WWII or Vietnam war....

In WWII Thailand supported Hitler Germany and Japan, till they saw that they will loose so they changed sides.

In Vietnam Thailand helped with war crimes.

Both neither related to the situation now nor with democracy....

I think many more Thais anulled their bulletins than 8.

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

It's not big news that eight Thais "tore up" their ballots. It's a shame, and millions did die in WWII and Vietnam for Thailand's right to carry on as a corrupt selfish nation.

8 Thais tore up ballots!

Are you also referring to that forgotten chapter (by Thais) in the history of this country and never taught in schools in Thailand (at any level) when the Japanese army occupied Thailand without armed opposition?

That event led to the infamous Kanchaburi hard labor camp (today a tourist attraction generating revenue for the country) in which mainly British and Australian soldiers worked and died. Add to that: Thailand declared war to the UK and the USA to show the Japanese occupiers that they were loyal to them.

8 Thais tore up ballots! What's the big deal? Thainess overrules principles and duties and...the inconvenient Rule of Law which is an alien concept to Thainess.

You tell people to "look it up" but maybe YOU should look up historical facts before you start typing on that keyboard!

some people shouldnt be allowed keyboards ......it goes to their heads

Wow what a crime indeed! Meanwhile Mr. Bush still walks free...........................

Bush is he in Dubai?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Probably a disgruntled yellow shirt voter, who for the last 10 or so years has seen his/her party loose election after election.

Beneath the torn ballot, it's an expression of frustration at the opposition democrat party who has utterly failed at formulating any attractive policies or gaining the trust of the electorate.

Are you one of Thaksin's 'cyber worriors'?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Probably a disgruntled yellow shirt voter, who for the last 10 or so years has seen his/her party loose election after election.

Beneath the torn ballot, it's an expression of frustration at the opposition democrat party who has utterly failed at formulating any attractive policies or gaining the trust of the electorate.

Are you one of Thaksin's 'cyber worriors'?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

whats a 'cyber worrior' ? are they like you and worry about things other people on the internet post ?

Probably a disgruntled yellow shirt voter, who for the last 10 or so years has seen his/her party loose election after election.

Beneath the torn ballot, it's an expression of frustration at the opposition democrat party who has utterly failed at formulating any attractive policies or gaining the trust of the electorate.

Are you one of Thaksin's 'cyber worriors'?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

whats a 'cyber worrior' ? are they like you and worry about things other people on the internet post ?

My misspell. I will try again. Are you one of Thaksins cyber warriors?

It's not big news that eight Thais "tore up" their ballots. It's a shame, and millions did die in WWII and Vietnam for Thailand's right to carry on as a corrupt selfish nation.

I was under the impression in WW11 that the Americans didn't get a chance to set up a base in Thailand to late in the war, as for the Vietnam war the Americans had supply lines, and refuelling depots set up in northern Thailand whilst the North Vietnamese were walking into Thailand and wiping out what they could. Oh and lets not forget the Cambodian Khmer rouge, Thailand coped their fare share off that rubbish as well. Pretty resilient country I would think for supposedly not taking sides. but I am surprised that ONLY 8 ripped up their ballot papers, some of those area's a red shirt territory, well at least one or two anyway. Just my opinion.

Are we sure it wasn't the mice in the election boxes? It happened before when mice dined on the ballots.