EC allows several international bodies to observe referendum

[webfact]

EC allows several international bodies to observe referendum  

BANGKOK, 2 August 2016 (NNT) – Election Commission (EC) member Somchai Srisuthiyakorn has let on that several countries and international organizations have expressed interest in observing the upcoming public referendum on the draft constitution, with several allowed to view the process. 

Somchai indicated that Timor-Leste, Bhutan, Nepal, the Asian Network for Free Elections and the Asia Foundation have all been allowed to observe the government’s handling of the referendum from August 5 until a day after the vote on August 8. All of the observers have been allowed to view polling stations but have been barred from entering booths as there are no applicable laws to issue the allowance. He noted the public can also take part in the observation by reporting any irregularities to the EC. 

The permanent secretary of education, Kumjorn Tatiyakawee, recently held a meeting with educational personnel to train them on how to explain the referendum process in simple terms so that they can aid the public in understanding the vote. The training was called for by the EC as part of efforts to encourage voters to turn out on August 7. 

-- nnt 2016-08-02

[Toknarok]

     WOW. I'm sure that the countries of Timor, Bhutan and Nepal being such international heavyweights will conduct a thorough investigation into the workings of the referendum. Only 4 days to go lads, let's see how quickly these countries can assemble teams, bring them to Thailand and deploy them so they can make constructive observations. The whole things bloody joke.

[Chang_paarp]

So the UN, the major democratic countries (including Thailand's main trade partners) and Transparency International failed to rate a representative to observe this piece of democracy in action.

[MZurf]

"Somchai indicated that Timor-Leste, Bhutan, Nepal, the Asian Network for Free Elections and the Asia Foundation have all been allowed to observe the government’s handling of the referendum from August 5 until a day after the vote on August 8."

You couldn't make this up, you just couldn't!

[heybruce]

Five days before the referendum they're told that they "have all been allowed to observe the government’s handling of the referendum from August 5 until a day after the vote on August 8."   No time to prepare for a proper monitoring of the process, and no mention of observing the vote count.  More and more it seems like the fix is in and the junta is laying the groundwork for covering their tracks.

Edited August 2, 2016 by heybruce
correction

[cumgranosalum]

Rather a selct bunch - how about an EU delegation?

[elgordo38]

2 hours ago, Toknarok said:

     WOW. I'm sure that the countries of Timor, Bhutan and Nepal being such international heavyweights will conduct a thorough investigation into the workings of the referendum. Only 4 days to go lads, let's see how quickly these countries can assemble teams, bring them to Thailand and deploy them so they can make constructive observations. The whole things bloody joke.

Now that the locals are whipped into shape its time to give the government (junta) some credence and international press. 

[kotsak]

 

[Redline]

1 hour ago, MZurf said:

"Somchai indicated that Timor-Leste, Bhutan, Nepal, the Asian Network for Free Elections and the Asia Foundation have all been allowed to observe the government’s handling of the referendum from August 5 until a day after the vote on August 8."

You couldn't make this up, you just couldn't!

They should get North Korea in the day before

[Lupatria]

I would have bet the new friend Moçambique, Syria and South Sudan would be on the list...

[Sunderland]

I spent a month in Nepal last April. Lovely people. Fantastic mountain scenery. Heard lots of accounts of people there not trusting their government. There is widespread corruption according to most people I met. I didn't hear anyone say anything positive about the people who govern Nepal. Probably not overly relevant to the original post, but there you go!

[tbthailand]

ANFEL will be able to have around 10 people observing this election. That sounds adequate...  

[kingstonkid]

I would not be surprised that western countries did not want to be anywhere this thing is so that if it blows up they can not be blamed.

 

 

[cumgranosalum]

28 minutes ago, kingstonkid said:

I would not be surprised that western countries did not want to be anywhere this thing is so that if it blows up they can not be blamed.

 

 

I seem to remember the EU offered but were turned down?

[heybruce]

From Khaosodenglish June 27:

 

"Only one international observer group, the Asian Network for Free Elections, or ANFREL, has applied to observe the referendum set for Aug. 7."

 

"Commissioner Somchai noted that only short-term observers, those flying in for three to four days prior to the plebiscite would be accredited, while those seeking to set up 15 days prior would not."  http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2016/06/27/thai-elections-monitor-fumes-barred-thai-referendum/ 

 

The request was made over a month ago, the reply received a few days before the referendum.  I hope ANFREL declines on the grounds that it is impossible to do a credible job under these circumstance.  When they monitored the 2011 election they were in place over a month in advance:

 

"ANFREL utilized in total 60 international observers, primarily made up of 24 Long Term Observers (LTOs) deployed from June 3rd to July 13th 2011, and 30 Short Term Observers (STOs) deployed from June 22nd to July 5th......Five members of an international Core Team steered the operation from Bangkok." http://anfrel.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/ThaiEOMReport_Edit_4-final_edit.pdf  

 

Why give the junta any semblance of credibility under these circumstances?

 

 

Edited August 2, 2016 by heybruce
correct typo

[jackinthebox]

Please excuse my OT-question: Does anybody know if shops are allowed to sell alcohol this weekend respectively  if Pubs and Bars will open? In the past I remember that they were mostly closed on theses "critical" days.

[heybruce]

26 minutes ago, jackinthebox said:

Please excuse my OT-question: Does anybody know if shops are allowed to sell alcohol this weekend respectively  if Pubs and Bars will open? In the past I remember that they were mostly closed on theses "critical" days.

In Chiang Mai the bars have been told no alcohol from 6 pm Saturday until midnight Sunday, which effectively means until 11 am Monday.  Many places will not bother to open Saturday and Sunday, those that do will not violate the rules (with the exception of a few uninteresting hole-in-the-wall places).  However these rules may not be applied strictly in other places.  Bangkok seems exempt from many rules that are applied to the rest of the country.

[HHTel]

Foreign observers have been invited since April or before.  As I see it, there's been plenty of time to organise teams. ANFREL seem to be the only major organisation who intend to send a team albeit only 10 people!

[xineohp]

"...Timor-Leste, Bhutan, Nepal, the Asian Network for Free Elections and the Asia Foundation...".

 

And just how much notice of these political minnows does one expect the current Thai administration to take should they have any concerns as to the probity or otherwise of the referendum?  Just another absolute farce! 

[heybruce]

2 hours ago, HHTel said:

Foreign observers have been invited since April or before.  As I see it, there's been plenty of time to organise teams. ANFREL seem to be the only major organisation who intend to send a team albeit only 10 people!

" Foreign observers have been invited since April or before."

 

Really?  What is your source for this information?  Why are we learning about this only now?

[HHTel]

From The Nation 22nd April 2016:

 

" Anfrel's referendum observation plan has been approved by Election Commissioner Somchai Srisuthiyakorn, Pongsak said.  "

 

Link: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Foreign-elections-watchdogs-preparing-for-charter--30284451.html

 

 

[MZurf]

26 minutes ago, HHTel said:

From The Nation 22nd April 2016:

 

" Anfrel's referendum observation plan has been approved by Election Commissioner Somchai Srisuthiyakorn, Pongsak said.  "

 

Link: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Foreign-elections-watchdogs-preparing-for-charter--30284451.html

 

 

 

You're totally wrong. The junta is full of <deleted> as usual:

 

http://anfrel.org/anfrel-statement-thailand-referendum-ban-on-monitoring-and-free-speech-against-international-norms-and-fair-play/

[HHTel]

Cha-cha-cha made his statement on 27th April.  He changed his mind on 29th of April.

 

Check it out!

 

From The Nation 29th April

 

" 'No ban on observers'
Prayut seemed to soften his tone on the monitoring of the referendum by the international community, saying foreign watchdogs will not be banned from observing the referendum. "I don't care if they [watchdogs] come or not. They can come if they want to … I can't stop them," he said. "

 

 

Edited August 3, 2016 by HHTel
Adding the source.

[MZurf]

7 minutes ago, HHTel said:

Cha-cha-cha made his statement on 27th April.  He changed his mind on 29th of April.

 

Check it out!

 

From The Nation 29th April

 

" 'No ban on observers'
Prayut seemed to soften his tone on the monitoring of the referendum by the international community, saying foreign watchdogs will not be banned from observing the referendum. "I don't care if they [watchdogs] come or not. They can come if they want to … I can't stop them," he said. "

 

 

"I can't stop them"

 

5555! Yes, you can. And you did!

[HHTel]

No he can't stop them and he didn't.  The 'hue and cry' since that time was the banning of local monitors.  That uses the law in the 'Referendum Act'.  If you look at the various sources, you will find that over the last couple of months, local organisations are up in arms because Thai observers are banned but foreign observers are not.  He can't stop foreign observers but he can give limited co-operation.  For example they've now been given a window of observation but cannot enter the booths.

 

How do you think 31 foreign observers have been organised at this late stage.  It's because they have had some time to do it.

[Toknarok]

      31 foreign observers to cover NINETY FOUR THOUSAND polling booths. If each observer spent ten seconds at a polling booth they probably wouldn't manage to cover them all. Don't try and justify any 'foreign observer' participation, there is effectively ABSOLUTELY NO observation of the referendum whatsoever, either foreign or domestic.

[HHTel]

I absolutely agree.  Far too few foreign observers and zero local observers (they have a law for that!).  But of course you would never get 94,000 observers.  Like here and in other countries, it takes the same framework as a poll does.  There'll be a 'sampling' across the board and just like polls, it probably won't produce accurate results. The numbers of observers vary depending upon the 'transparency' of the particular country.  In the Phillipines there were over 100 and they uncovered 'vote buying' etc.  Maybe the international organisations think 30+ is sufficient to take a snapshot of voting in Thailand.

[heybruce]

3 hours ago, HHTel said:

From The Nation 22nd April 2016:

 

" Anfrel's referendum observation plan has been approved by Election Commissioner Somchai Srisuthiyakorn, Pongsak said.  "

 

Link: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Foreign-elections-watchdogs-preparing-for-charter--30284451.html

 

Apparently that approval didn't stick. 

 

June 30, 2016:

 

" ANFREL expresses its serious concern on the Thai government’s decision to ban election monitors and its imposition of strong restrictions against freedom of speech in the light of the upcoming 7-August referendum in Thailand. The process to decide on its new constitution should be made free, fair, and credible. ANFREL finds these restrictions as an affront to human rights and the basic principles of electoral democracy." http://anfrel.org/anfrel-statement-thailand-referendum-ban-on-monitoring-and-free-speech-against-international-norms-and-fair-play/   

 

29 July, 2016:

Anfrel pulls out of poll monitoring role

"An Asia-wide election monitoring group, Anfrel, will refrain from observing the Aug 7 charter referendum because the Election Commission took so long to respond to its request, its chief said Thursday. " 

 

" Despite the EC and the government declining to allow foreign governments to send monitoring teams to polling stations, several embassies in Bangkok said they would do so."   29 July 2016, from a source not allowed but easy to Google.

 

 

[HHTel]

The link you give is ANFREL objecting to the ban of LOCAL Thai monitoring and not allowing free speech.  There are many posts of this nature.  The objection is not about allowing foreign observers but local ones.

 

"

BANGKOK — After waiting months for official accreditation, the head of a nonpartisan domestic election monitoring group said he was dismayed to learn Monday that no Thai organizations would be granted status for the upcoming charter referendum.

Pongsak Chan-on of We Watch said allowing foreign organizations but barring Thai groups such as his made no sense and amounted to discrimination."

This was in June.

The link: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2016/06/27/thai-elections-monitor-fumes-barred-thai-referendum/

And there are many more.

Don't get confused between allowing foreign observers and Thai monitoring teams.

 

Anfrel pulls out of poll monitoring role

Your final point, once again, if you read it, the reason they are pulling out is because they required local monitoring teams in place to make their effort at all meaningful and because of that, they cannot field enough of their own observers.

[HHTel]

Maybe this point should be clarified.  Nobody has banned groups from observing the referendum.  As I've said in a previous post, the foreign observers can't be stopped.  However, the government will use the tool of 'non-cooperation' to limit their findings.  With that in mind, observers will not be allowed inside the polling stations.  Pnet will have 2000 observers on the ground but are only allowed to 'observe' as citizens.  

In essence, without the co-operation of the government, any findings by the 'observers' will not be worth anything.