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EC threatened with lawsuits, impeachment over alleged irregularities


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EC threatened with lawsuits, impeachment over alleged irregularities

By The Nation

 

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THE ELECTION Commission (EC) came under intense pressure yesterday as political parties pushed for transparency and fair treatment amid suspicions of intervention and manipulation of Sunday’s national vote.

 

 EC members yesterday met for over three hours before deciding not to count the 1,542 ballots cast in advance voting by Thai expatriates in New Zealand.

 

The ballots, transported by air to Thailand, failed to arrive at their intended polling stations in time for vote counting on Sunday.

 

The anti-junta Future Forward Party threatened to take legal action against the commissioners for alleged malfeasance if they failed to call new voting in constituencies where officials manning polling stations were accused of unfair practices.

 

Future Forward executives yesterday submitted their request for the EC to disclose all key data about Sunday’s general election. They cited the Official Information Act.

 

Klaikong Vaidayakarn, the party’s registrar, said the request was for the EC to disclose information such as the number of eligible voters, voter turnout, number of ballot papers for polling stations, ballots considered void, and the votes each candidate obtained.

 

“Disclosure of such information can help reduce the possibility of election fraud,” Klaikong said.

 

He claimed there were attempts to reduce the number of votes Future Forward had got in many areas throughout the country. 

 

A Future Forward candidate in Bangkok, Adisorn Pho-arn, yesterday said certain election officials in Constituency 5 had acted unfairly in favour of candidates from the pro-junta Phalang Pracharat Party while counting votes.

 

He demanded that the EC decide within three days whether to call new voting in the constituency. “If they fail to make things clear, I will sue the EC for dereliction of duty,” he said.

 

The anti-junta Pheu Thai Party yesterday pressured the EC to ensure fair treatment amid alleged interventions and manipulations.

 

“We just want fairness in this election. It has been alleged that special power was used to interfere with the election,” Pheu Thai secretary-general Phumtham Wechayachai said. 

 

He also asked the EC to announce the votes obtained by the candidates as soon as possible, to avoid accusations the EC was “fixing the numbers”.

 

An online campaign at the Change.org website for impeachment of Thailand’s election commissioners obtained support from 757,000 netizens yesterday evening. The goal was to gather 1 million supporters.

 

The campaign’s leaders explained on its page that it was launched after Sunday’s election showed signs of irregularities and was faced with a lot of allegations.

 

Meanwhile, the European Union called for the election results to be announced as soon as possible. 

 

“We look forward to the announcement of the election results as soon as possible. It is also important that any reported irregularities are resolved swiftly and transparently,” the EU said in a statement.

 

Yesterday, there were media reports of unqualified persons being listed as eligible voters in Sunday’s election. 

 

A Facebook user under the name Anusara Pholboon posted a message that her three-month-old son was listed as an eligible voter. It was also reported that a seven-year-old girl and a woman who had died 20 years ago were among separate lists of eligible voters.

 

As of yesterday, the election agency ordered removal of content in 68 social media accounts deemed violating the electoral law. These included messages and photos attacking various political parties, election candidates and prime ministerial nominations.

 

In a related development, police found hacker attacks on the EC’s online vote-count reporting system known as Rapid Report.

 

The hacker attacks resulted in the system collapsing three times on Sunday, said Police Lt-General Surachet Hakparn, deputy director of the Taskforce for Information Technology Crime Suppression.

 

Surachet said the hackers had launched their attacks from inside and outside the country. “They are the same group of people,” he said but refused to identify them.

 

Also, he declined to specify whether the hackers were involved with any political group.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30366599

 

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-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-03-27
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Surachet said the hackers had launched their attacks from inside and outside the country. “They are the same group of people,” he said but refused to identify them.

Also, he declined to specify whether the hackers were involved with any political group.

 

In other words he doesn't know...

 

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"...EC threatened with lawsuits, impeachment over alleged irregularities..."

 

Sadly, one has to ask the question...

 

Do these threats of lawsuits and/or impeachment have any merit, or are these people 'Protected' from accountability?

 

Unfortunately, I suspect the latter...

 

 

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5 hours ago, webfact said:

EC members yesterday met for over three hours before deciding not to count the 1,542 ballots cast in advance voting by Thai expatriates in New Zealand. 

They could have counted them themselves during that time; maybe they did and didn't like the result!

 

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4 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

Surachet said the hackers had launched their attacks from inside and outside the country. “They are the same group of people,” he said but refused to identify them.

Also, he declined to specify whether the hackers were involved with any political group.

 

In other words he doesn't know...

 

Hacker hacker hacker,.... password 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 :cheesy::cheesy::cheesy::cheesy:

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5 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

Surachet said the hackers had launched their attacks from inside and outside the country. “They are the same group of people,” he said but refused to identify them.

Also, he declined to specify whether the hackers were involved with any political group.

 

In other words he doesn't know...

 

Possibly the Chinese - the last thing they want is a multi-party democracy, just military rule!

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4 hours ago, Anythingleft? said:

For the UK to have any mention in this concerning voting and voters rights seems downright absurd under the current conditions.......

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Where in the report does it mention the UK?

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1 hour ago, Anythingleft? said:

Not sure if this link is allowed, same story different view

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2019/03/26/eu-uk-urge-thailand-to-resolve-election-irregularities/

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Would have made more sense if you'd have included the link to the different report along with your original comment or at least provided the quote.

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7 hours ago, Anythingleft? said:

For the UK to have any mention in this concerning voting and voters rights seems downright absurd under the current conditions.......

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Not as absurd as your statement. When the UK starts having regular coups and scripts a constitution to rig elections , you might have the beginning of a point.

 

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Not as absurd as your statement. When the UK starts having regular coups and scripts a constitution to rig elections , you might have the beginning of a point.
 
Not really, there seems to be a new thought that if the vote goes different to the way a small or smaller liberal minority wanted then it must have been:
Fixed, rigged, payed for by another government, has to be a mistake in counting, was not fair as nobody knew what they were getting into and a dozen other excuses

Trump, Brexit and now Thailand..

The UK should sort it's own mess out and act according to the vote that was cast on Brexit before they interfere with others... cry me a river.... let the Thais get on with their own governance...


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16 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

"...EC threatened with lawsuits, impeachment over alleged irregularities..."

 

Sadly, one has to ask the question...

 

Do these threats of lawsuits and/or impeachment have any merit, or are these people 'Protected' from accountability?

 

Unfortunately, I suspect the latter...

 

 

This has to be posturing as we know who controls the justice system. Continuing to erode popular support for the junta may lead to a better result for those opposing the sitting leadership in the future.

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