CMPO's charges against poll officials groundless, Sukhumbhand says

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CMPO's charges against poll officials groundless, Sukhumbhand says
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- BANGKOK GOVERNOR Sukhum-bhand Paribatra said yesterday that the Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order had no grounds in deciding to take legal action against city officials who resigned as election officials.

The CMPO announced on Sunday that it had instructed the police to conduct an investigation against some Bangkok election officials who quit without providing a reason or walked out of the job abruptly, which it says prevented people from casting their vote.

Sukhumbhand said the CMPO should not pass the blame or link its political failure with city officials or make them scapegoats.

He said the Election Commission was in charge of the poll, so the CMPO must respect the EC and let it handle election issues.

He insisted that city officials and volunteers had carried out their duty to the best of their ability and he was proud of them.

He said city officials had nothing to do with the fact that many polling stations closed on Sunday.

The EC had ordered that if there were a risk of clashes, then officials should withdraw or close the polling station.

The governor also said he had gone out to cast his vote on Sunday even though he did not want to, adding that he would tell the EC that he was unable to do so because voting had been cancelled in Ratchathewi district.

Bangkok city clerk Ninnart Chalitanon said the city administration would not order investigation against volunteers who applied as election officials and suddenly quit because the capital was still reeling under political turmoil.

She said the volunteers had been asked to help, and if they end up being investigated, the city would not be able to ask for their help again.

She reported that 516 polling stations had cancelled voting, 13 had closed ahead of time and up to 114 stations could not open because of the lack of election officials.

Only 1,143,667 voters or 26.1 per cent of the 4,369,120 eligible voters in Bangkok turned out. Of the 33 constituencies, 30 were given ballot boxes. Also 389 polling stations could not get their ballot boxes as protesters had besieged them, including 86 stations in Ratchathewi district and 175 in Din Daeng.

Of the total polling stations in Bangkok, 516 were not able to hold voting on Sunday, while 6,155 could.


-- The Nation 2014-02-04

[chainarong]

CMPO's sure has studied democracy , under their opinion you are not allowed to resign , good on old Thailand, you seem to attract Dumb, Dumber and Dumber to the numbers in administration, time Thailand took stock of it-self and start a good course of common sense, unfortunately for CMPO anybody can resign at any time , pity Yingluk Shinawatra and clan didn't take that path, sure would solve some problems, but create new ones.

[focus27]

Wrong target. Yesterday, the EC commissioner in charge of the election admitted he made mistakes and wanted to resign his position - the head of the EC refused to accept this.

Now that's the target!

They could also throw in the election directors that resigned en masse.

[catmac]

Wrong target. Yesterday, the EC commissioner in charge of the election admitted he made mistakes and wanted to resign his position - the head of the EC refused to accept this.

Now that's the target!

They could also throw in the election directors that resigned en masse.

Agreed, it would seem churlish to go after the little players in what had become an utter farce from the top downwards. From the very beginning, the EC seemed to have little idea of what they were supposed to be doing, i.e. facilitating the Election. Instead they wanted to play politics, trying to impose their will on the caretaker Govt.

When it came to doing their job, they showed such incompetence that I can only surmise that they were deliberately setting the thing up to be a shambles.

[spirit47]

Chalerms big show up, fighting the EC and members with the full force of democrazy. Well done Chalerms, you our hero...