People’s Party seeks recounts in 10 constituencies over alleged poll rigging

The People’s party is demanding that the Election Commission order recount of the votes in 10 constituencies, where it suspects irregularities in the counting of ballots when the polls closed on Sunday.

The party has listed the 10 constituencies and their candidates and demanded that the votes they received be recounted.

They are:

• Chatchaval Apirakmunkong, Khon Kaen Constituency 2

• Suvipha Kusoljoong, Lampang Constituency 2

• Ratthaphat Pattanasirirak, Surat Thani Constituency 1

• Warot Sirirak, Chon Buri Constituency 1

• Thirawat Phanna, Maha Sarakham Constituency 1

• Nalanta Boonchit, Nakhon Ratchasima Constituency 13

• Songphol Phattaraphirom, Chainat Constituency 1

• Veerapat Kantha, Samut Prakan Constituency 6

• Krit Panniam, Tak Constituency 1

• Sorrapat Sriprach, Saraburi Constituency 1

The party said in its Facebook post today that it accepts poll results whether it is win or lose, but will not accept vote counting cheating.

It also urged members of the public to present evidence of suspected election irregularities to the party, through its various channels, if they have any.

Meanwhile, EC Deputy Secretary Pasakorn Siripakayaporn explained today that a vote recount must comply with the conditions stipulated in the law and it is at the sole discretion of the Election Commission whether to order a vote recount.

In the case of Chon Buri’s Constituency 1, where a vote recount has been demanded by many people, he said that the EC has designated a deputy secretary-general to conduct a fact-finding probe, to be completed in two days, and submit the findings to the EC, adding that the EC will then decide whether a vote recount will be required.

Pasakorn explained that, normally, the vote counting process ends at the polling station, after which the results are announced there.

Then the poll results of every polling station are sent to the respective district office, where they are added together to produce the poll results for each constituency.

After the votes from all polling stations in a constituency are totalled, he said all ballot sheets are put together in larger boxers, which are kept at a police station, a district office or a safe place for two years.

He noted that the vote count protests in Chon Buri’s Constituency 1 might stem from a misunderstanding of the process of transferring the ballots from boxes arriving from polling stations to larger boxes at the district office.

He admitted that some ballot boxes were not properly sealed when they arrived at the district office in Chon Buri as he dismissed the suspicion that vote count outcome could be tampered with in the course of this process of transferring ballots from one ballot box to another for safe keeping.