EC Guilty!

[slimdog]

Want to know what people think about using the "regional court networks" in running the EC.....is this good or is this bad? Will it make the process more credible or will it make the process more prone to manipulation and corruption? Will it make it easier to bribe officials because they will be scattered far and wide so they will not be in the spotlight so the bribing will be harder to find and prove?...or will it make each bribe smaller and more affordable to small parties and thus making the process more equitable?

This isn't a new idea. Both previous Election Commissions tried to get the Judiciary involved in monitoring elections, but on each occassion their proposal was denied, with the judiciary saying that they didn't want to be involved in the election process in a pro-active manner, as this could possibly lead to complications with any cases which went through the courts.

Is this Good or Bad?

By and large it would be a positive move, the more people who are seen to be fully independant who are taking an active role in the monitoring of elections can really only be seen as a good thing.

Will it make the process more credible or will it make the process more prone to manipulation and corruption?

Again with the Judiciary playing an active role, there should in theory be far less oportunity for politicians or their supporters to manipulate or corrupt the election process.

Will it make it easier to bribe officials because they will be scattered far and wide so they will not be in the spotlight so the bribing will be harder to find and prove?

Officials are already scattered far and wide, so it certainly shouldn't make the possibility of corruption any greater than it has been in the past, and hopefully it will have positive influence on the election process.

What you have to remember is that holding a General Election (or any election for that matter)is a massive undertaking on the part of the Election Commission. I have heard that there are somewhere in the region of 30,000 - 40,000 polling stations set up nationally to organise the election, (unfortunetly the ECT english language version has been down since the former commissioners were convicted, so I am unable to verify the actual number). At each of these the Election Commission is responsible for organising and monitoring the voting process. In theory 7 seats are made available to the various political parties and any ngo group who may wish to monitor the election, in practice it doesn't quite work like that, as political parties and ngo's are under no obligation to stay for the duration of the election, but at the same time there can never be any less than 7 monitors, which means that in order to keep within the constitution, the EC has to provide no less than 7 people at each of the polling stations to act as monitors, thats nearly 300,000 people the EC has to employ just for monitoring.

And people wonder why an election costs so much....

[sriracha john]

Senators' bloc 'opposed to three EC nominees'

Some senators are set on blocking three nominees for the Election Commission who they believe are "hostile" to caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his party, a senator said yesterday

Kaewsun Atibodhi, Nam Yimyaem and Wasan Soipisut would not get any votes from the senators in the Thai Rak Thai Party camp, said the senator, who refused to be named.

The pro-Thaksin senators are believed to number about 80 out of the nearly 200 still in their caretaker status.

Of the 10 nominees, the three are reported to be "unfriendly" to Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai since they were nominated by Supreme Court judges.

Kaewsun recently resigned as a senator to run for one of the EC vacancies. He had been one of the regular critics of the Thaksin government during its five years in power.

Nam, a retired judge, chaired the EC fact-finding panel that concluded that Thai Rak Thai hired minor parties to run the April 2 election and should be punished by dissolution. The finding led to an EC petition to the Constitution Court seeking the end of Thai Rak Thai.

Wasan as a Supreme Court justice stood as a witness against Thaksin for allegedly attempting to lobby Constitution Court judges to help him escape a guilty verdict in his 2001 asset-concealment case.

Outspoken Senator Chirmsak Pinthong vowed to give all 10 EC nominees close scrutiny, claiming a few of them had "tarnished" records.

Another outgoing senator and a former senator backed the proposition that the general election scheduled for October 15 should be postponed if the Senate cannot complete its thorough review of the EC nominees in time. They said they wanted only the best commissioners to rebuild the election body.

"I've learned that a few nominees have close ties with 'prominent figures' but it's a pity that I cannot mention their names," Chirmsak said.

As a motion to disqualify a dishonest victor in an election needs the consensus of all EC members, only one "undeserving" commissioner could defeat the other "good" four if he or she voted against it, Chirmsak said.

The ad-hoc panel of the Senate would need some time to complete its task of checking the backgrounds of the 10 nominees as Chirmsak, one of the panel members, expects complaints to come pouring in.

With a deadline that requires the new EC to be in place by August 24 when the October 15 election decree becomes effective, Chirmsak believes the Senate would fail to pick all five "neutral" commissioners.

The Supreme Court short-listed the 10 nominees on Thursday.

The selection of a new EC follows the convictions and resignations of commissioners Vasana Puemlarp, Prinya Nakchudtree and Virachai Naewboonnien for mismanagement of the April 2 snap election.

Outgoing Senator Sak Khosangruang said the upcoming election should be deferred if the new EC was not ready to handle it.

"The EC should have some more time to conduct the election, which many people greatly anticipate to be fair," he said.

Recently resigned senator Pichet Pattanachote said the court picked the best 10 out of 42 candidates, so the Senate should not rush the selection process as it might fail to get the ideal choices.

Nominee Wicha Mahakhun said he would do his best to serve the country and His Majesty the King if he were appointed as an election commissioner.

Wasan Soipisut believes he would not have problems with other EC members, as he has good relations with all the other nominees.

Sumet Oupanisakorn said that although he was 68, he did not think his age would impair his efficiency to supervise the EC's work.

An extraordinary session of all outgoing senators would be convened on Tuesday to vote for five EC members, acting Senate Speaker Suchon Chaleekrue said.

The Nation

[John K]

This is starting to get a bit more interesting. As I am not familiar with many of the names nominated for the EC position, I was wondering what a worse case scenario would be? Worse case meaning pro Thaksin. Also based on the apparent blockage of names by the senate, that would imply that they are not impartial as they should be. Is not the process to consider other criteria? I admit I don’t know that applies or not. The real challenge here is completing the process in real time and not Thai time.

Beyond all that, I think Thaksin has done enough already on the October 15 election that he could be shown the door.

[lukamar]

I was wondering what a worse case scenario would be? Worse case meaning pro Thaksin.

Worst case scenario would be that the new EC is not impartial and neutral. That was the main complaint against the previous EC. The way the nominees have been put forward there will always be an Ex-judge holding the deciding vote no matter who is voted in by the Senate. Even if the Senate picks the 2 non judge nominees they have to pick 3 judges as they don't have any other choice. From what I know of some of the nominees the EC will now be Anti Thaksin. It will be interesting to see the comments from forum members if the EC is not neutral as they were loud and vociferous about the last EC.

[hammered]

I was wondering what a worse case scenario would be? Worse case meaning pro Thaksin.

Worst case scenario would be that the new EC is not impartial and neutral. That was the main complaint against the previous EC. The way the nominees have been put forward there will always be an Ex-judge holding the deciding vote no matter who is voted in by the Senate. Even if the Senate picks the 2 non judge nominees they have to pick 3 judges as they don't have any other choice. From what I know of some of the nominees the EC will now be Anti Thaksin. It will be interesting to see the comments from forum members if the EC is not neutral as they were loud and vociferous about the last EC.

Dont forget the TRT bloc in the senate are quick to name 3 nominees they dont like but other senators suggest some nominees are linked to TRT people but cannot name. It is never as clear as they will all be anti-TRT. Thaksin's task will be to slip at least one stealth candidate through so that no red cards can be issued. We also shouldnt forget the local ECs which were all linked to the previous and now discredited EC can affect outcomes too. It is good that most people seem to rate whatever group we get as better than the previous bunch and that increasingly includes TRT supporters. This may suggest interesting times ahead at TRT if it wins the election as most likely.

[John K]

Rushing the process clearly benefits Thaksin. The need to do a in depth screening process is important to check if they are Thaksin people. The October 15 date may be unrealistic in that Thailand is very paper heavy. It will take a lot of man hours to sort through all of that paper.

Then the concern that there may be a pro Thaksin person(s) that finds and deliberately overlooks disqualifying information to gain a seat in the EC. I would not put this past Thaksin as he has already clearly done much worse.

[Jai Dee]

Mr. Jermsak believes that locking votes will happen in the selection of new election commissioners

Acting Senator Jermsak Pinthong (เจิมศักดิ์ ปิ่นทอง) believes that illegal activities such as locking vote counts will occur during the selection of the new election commissioners. Nevertheless, he considers that it will not be severe.

He claims that such situation will happen as many votes over the past were done in the same way. However, he said that the selected nominees from the Supreme Court have appropriate qualifications for this important position.

He has also urged relevant units to keep an eye on this vote as well.

In regard to the selection of members of the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC), he said that people and units should be more concerned on this selection as the NCCC members will play a key role on scrutinizing politicians.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 14 August 2006

[Jai Dee]

Mr. Suchon: Senators will be allowed to express their views on qualifications of EC nominees

Caretaker Senate Speaker Suchon Chaleekrua (สุชน ชาลีเครือ) stated he will allow all members of Senators to express their views to those whose names have been prosoed to become new election commissioners.

He said that a team of committee will be designated to consider profiles of nominees of new election commissioners this afternoon.

As for selection of members of the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC), he said that the matter will be considered tomorrow.

Nakhon Ratchasrima (นครราชสีมา) Senator Mr. Sawai Primenee (ไสว พราหมณี) said that the scrutinizing profiles and qualification of EC nominees will take 15 days as the committee must carefully evaluate them.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 15 August 2006

[sriracha john]

Thai Election Commission's Secretary-General to Resign over Political Crisis

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The last remaining senior official of Thailand's embattled Election Commission said Tuesday that he planned to resign this week, following a slew of lawsuits and the conviction of three commissioners.

Ekachai Warunprapha, the commission's secretary-general, said he would step down Thursday, when he will explain the reasons for his decision.

The Election Commission is at the center of a political crisis that has dragged on for months. The body, which organizes and oversees polls, was widely accused of favoring Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's ruling party in an April 2 general election, which was later invalidated by the courts.

A new vote has been scheduled for October 15, and legislators are scrambling to fill the five already vacant commission seats before then.

The last three election commissioners stepped down on July 26 after they were each sentenced to four years in prison for acting illegally during the general election. Another commissioner resigned before the trial, and one died.

Ekachai's comments came as the Senate met to begin choosing the five candidates from among 10 contenders selected by the Supreme Court.

Thailand has had no working legislature and only a caretaker government under Thaksin since he dissolved Parliament in February to call the April election. He called the snap polls -- three years ahead of schedule -- to defuse protests calling for him to step down because of alleged corruption and abuse of power.

- Associated Press

[Jai Dee]

Democrat accepts Senate's consideration on EC selection

The Democrat Party accepts the Senate’s deliberation to select the Election Commission members, as the party is convinced in the Supreme Court’s prior selection.

Mr. Ong-art Klampaiboon, the Democrat Spokesman, said his party has confidence in the 10 EC candidates previously selected by the Supreme Court. Now, the Senate will have to select five out of those nominees who have the best qualifications to be the election commissioners.

Nevertheless, the party is concerned about the appointment of the new National Counter Commission (NCCC) members by the Senate tomorrow, as it fears that vote-blocking may take place.

Mr. Ong-art said if such incident happens, it would be extremely dangerous for the nation because there would not be an autonomous organization that can truly suppress corruption.

He has demanded the Senate to disclose this issue to the general public.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 15 August 2006

[sriracha john]

EC secretary-general Ekachai to step down tomorrow

Election Commission secretary-general Ekachai Warunprapha announced yesterday that he will resign tomorrow.

He told The Nation yesterday that after leaving office he would turn his back on politics for the rest of his life. "I'm fed up with it," he said during a telephone interview. His resignation, however, requires approval from the chairman of the next EC.

The Senate will soon select five new commissioners from 10 names put up by the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Thai Rak Thai Party legal experts yesterday opposed a call by the Democrat Party to postpone the general election and remove the Provincial Election Commission.

The Democrats want the poll delayed until after the resolution of a court case that could lead to the dissolution of five parties, allowing members of dissolved parties to join other camps before the poll.

Legal adviser Vichit Plangsrisakul said the election should be held on October 15 as scheduled because a royal decree had been issued and the private sector feared any delay would hurt the economy.

Peerapan Palusuk, another TRT adviser, dismissed concerns the new EC would not be able to manage the election. He also opposed the call to remove the Provincial Election Commission, saying it was not fair to officials nominated legally.

"If they were to file a complaint with the Administrative Court for being unfairly removed, the election could be further delayed," he said.

The Nation

[sriracha john]

Criminal verdict due on Sept 15

The Criminal Court is due to deliver a verdict next month on the malfeasance case against the former Election Commission over its inquiry into allegations the Thai Rak Thai Party hired small parties to compete in the election.

Democrat secretary-general Su-thep Thaugsuban filed the charge against the EC, EC chairman Vasana Puemlarp and election commissioners Prinya Nakchudtree and Virachai Naew-boonnien for favouring Thai Rak Thai in the investigation into the alleged election fraud.

The final defendant's testimony finished yesterday. The court asked the plaintiff and defendants to file their closing statements within 20 days. The verdict will be announced on September 15. The last defendant to testify yesterday was Police Maj-General Adisorn Jintapat, a member of the EC's fact-finding sub-committee on the election fraud case.

He said he was among a few sub-committee members who wanted the EC to more fully investigate the allegation against Thai Rak Thai while the sub-committee chairman Nam Yimyaem concluded the case saying the evidence was enough to find Thai Rak Thai guilty.

The Nation

[John K]

So what is going on with Thaksin’s lawyer? I seemed to have lost track of where he is. I have not heard too much about Thaksin suing people in the last few weeks.

[Plus]

His lawer, Thana, is busy defending himself on contempt of court charges, I believe. Three of his co-accused have been declared guilty already.

[sriracha john]

going, going.... gone. A clean sweep now of all the big wigs at EC:

EC secretary-general steps down

BANGKOK, Aug 17 (TNA) - Secretary-General of the Election Commission of Thailand (EC) Pol. Maj. Gen. Ekkachai Varunprapa tendered his resignation Thursday, effective from next Monday.

Pol. Maj. Gen. Ekkachai told a press conference at the EC headquarters here after tendering his resignation that the decision was aimed to facilitate the work of the new five-member EC to be soon elected by the Senate and to ease anxiety of political parties.

The outgoing EC secretary general had worked for the previous five election commissioners, three of them were each sentenced for a four-year jail term by the Criminal Court recently for mishandling of the general and related polls in April, another one resigned earlier this year and the other died last year.

Pol. Maj. Gen. Ekkachai said that he had cleared all his work for his successor and the new election panel, noting that he has no plan to enter politics after stepping down.

The outgoing EC secretary general later received flowers and garlands from EC staff who turned out to bid farewell to him and boost his morale.

The Senate is expected to finally vote for the new five election commisisoners over the next two weeks after a thorough scrunity on qualifications and backgrounds of all 10 candidates, most of them judges, nominated earlier by the Supreme Court.

- MCOT

Edited August 17, 2006 by sriracha john

[seri thai]

http://rockmania.net/deniro/albums/1987_th...uchables_10.jpg

Looking forward to Oct 15th...

[seri thai]

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for a few good men to do nothing" Edmund Burke

Now here of course we have a problem. Presumably our population of men contains good men, bad men, and in-between men, the bad men being the ones who work for the triumph of evil. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that the good men amount to 10% of the population. Now if a few good men, say 2% of the population, do nothing, you still have 8% of the population made up of good men who are doing something. Will the efforts of the 8% fail because of the inertia of the 2%? If so, Burke’s sentence seems to be saying that all good men must be active in resisting a particular evil, and this, unless the activity were seen as a definition of goodness, is so unlikely to take place that one would expect the triumph of the evil to be guaranteed. After all, some of the good men may be ill in bed. Or it may mean that certain well-placed good men do nothing. But that would be a mere tautology, another way of saying that the evil will succeed unless certain good men in a position to prevent it from succeeding act to prevent it. All this of course presupposes that the sentence makes good sense without the additional ‘a few’, about which more below. Similar remarks apply to ‘some’ for ‘few’,

[slimdog]

What you have to remember is that holding a General Election (or any election for that matter)is a massive undertaking on the part of the Election Commission. I have heard that there are somewhere in the region of 30,000 - 40,000 polling stations set up nationally to organise the election, (unfortunetly the ECT english language version has been down since the former commissioners were convicted, so I am unable to verify the actual number). At each of these the Election Commission is responsible for organising and monitoring the voting process. In theory 7 seats are made available to the various political parties and any ngo group who may wish to monitor the election, in practice it doesn't quite work like that, as political parties and ngo's are under no obligation to stay for the duration of the election, but at the same time there can never be any less than 7 monitors, which means that in order to keep within the constitution, the EC has to provide no less than 7 people at each of the polling stations to act as monitors, thats nearly 300,000 people the EC has to employ just for monitoring.

And people wonder why an election costs so much....

I posted this a week ago, since then the actual number of polling stations has been published:

86,901

This equates to 608,307 monitors. In addition to this the Election commission has to provide one official to act as the overall manager of each of the polling stations, and is responsible for ensuring that the names of everyone elegable to vote is available, as well as that sufficient election material (voting slips, pens, polling booths etc) are at hand.

In addition to this he has the responsibility of the election boxes, and ensuring that all complaints are passed onto the regional EC for investigation.

A little more news regarding the resignation of the Secretary General:

In one of his last official moves, Ekachai sent letters to four political parties on Tuesday demanding they return subsidies given them by the EC because they were disbanded by the Constitution Court or are under consideration for dissolution.

"I have to do it according to a political parties decree," he said.

Thai Rak Thai owes Bt135 million, the Democrats Bt45 million, Thai Ground Bt130,000 and Pattana Chart Thai Bt16,000.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/08/18...cs_30011383.php

Meanwhile, the Democrat party cried foul over the EC's demand for the party to return around 46 million baht to the Political Party Fund since it faces a court verdict that could potentially lead to its dissolution. In a letter dated Aug 15 and signed by Pol Maj-Gen Ekkachai, the EC ordered the party to hand over 45.9 million baht it received from the EC within 15 days.

The party was entitled to a subsidy of 57.4 million baht and had received 45.9 million baht.

Democrat Thepthai Senpong said the letter was signed by Pol Maj-Gen Ekkachai who was on leave from Aug 15-16 and therefore not authorised to make decisions related to the Political Party Fund.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.net/News/18Aug2006_news02.php

[Jai Dee]

Ten agencies provide details on 10 nominees to EC posts

Representatives of 10 agencies provided information on the 10 nominees for the EC post to the 22-member senate panel today. The screening will take place today.

Panel chairman Sunthorn Jinda-in (สุนทร จินดาอินทร์) said the officials came from agencies such as the National Intelligence Agency, the Economic and technological Crime Suppression Division and the Internal Security Operations Command.

The panel is running background checks on seven active judges, a retired judge, a prosecutor and an ex-senator named by the Supreme Court’s general assembly on August 10 as contenders. The interim senate will vote five of them to the Election Commission.

Mr. Sunthorn said information from the public sent to the senate’s PO. Box 45 will also be considered. The panel has so far received 117 pieces of information about the nominees’ political impartiality and their conducts, he added.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 18 August 2006

[Jai Dee]

The Nakhon Ratchasima election supervisory committee chairman asks election directors in the Northeast to decide whether they should resign

Nakhon Ratchasima election supervisory committee is seeking a resolution by all 95 provincial election directors in the Northeast whether they should resign.

Nakhon Ratchasima election director Paiboon Makkhawimarn (ไพบูลย์ มัฆวิมาน) said all those people have been asked to decide if they should quit and if that is the case, when.

Mr. Paiboon said the resignation will make way for the new Election Commission (EC) to appoint new provincial election directors so the public can be certain that the forthcoming general election will be clean and fair.

He said voters might suspect that he and other poll directors in the Northeast are supporters of the three former poll commissioners who resigned after being handed a jail sentence by the Criminal Court.

Mr. Paiboon said he wanted the public to trust the EC again. He said it should be known in seven days if the 95 directors will stand down.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 19 August 2006

[Jai Dee]

Senator Wanlop : New Election Commission should be appointed no later than September 9

The interim senate should be able to call a meeting to select five new members of the Election Commission (EC) early next month.

Senator Wanlop Tangkhananurak (วัลลภ ตังคณานุรักษ์), as secretary of a 22-member panel screening qualifications of 10 EC candidates, said the new poll commissioners should be able to start working no later than September 9. BR>

Mr. Wanlop said the panel will not consider complaints against any of the 10 nominees after August 25. Candidates facing complaints have a chance to defend themselves on August 28 and 29, he said.

Records of the 10 should be submitted to the senate speaker within September 2, he said. The 10 finalists were selected by the Supreme Court’s general assembly on August 10. The senate will vote five of them to the poll agency.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 22 August 2006

[Jai Dee]

Senate panel starts to screen EC nominees

The Senate panel scrutinizing the 10 nominees for the new Election Commission (EC) announced yesterday that it will begin looking into the numerous public complaints made against certain candidates this week.

Wallop Tangkhananurak, the panel secretary, confirmed yesterday that the screening process is proceeding on track, and that candidates facing public objections will be given a chance to provide their defense next week.

Wallop, an outgoing Bangkok senator, said that the panel had received 199 complaints in the mail and 461 on the Senate website.

“The panel will invite the complainants to appear before the panel on August 28 to voice their concerns,” he said. “Those who are accused will be able to provide counter-testimony to the panel on August 29.”

Wallop also said there were only six candidates who needed to appear before the panel to defend themselves.

Upon its formation two weeks ago, the Senate screening panel, consisting of 22 caretaker senators, agreed to complete the EC selection process in not more than 20 days.

Last week, the panel listened to the individual statements of the 10 EC candidates on how they envisioned their role as an election chief, and received information from nine state organizations, including the National Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Auditor General and the Economic Crime Suppression Police, detailing specific aspects of the backgrounds of the candidates for use in the selection process.

However, the new EC will not be appointed by the time the Royal Decree for the October 15 general election comes into force tomorrow, and it is widely acknowledged that the election date will need to be postponed.

Source: ThaiDay - 23 August 2006

[Plus]

The thread's title is outdated - it should be "All three EC members have been out of jail for three weeks and counting"

As it stands its completely inaccurate.

Jai Dee, close the thread and start another one about EC selection, please.

[Jai Dee]

The thread's title is outdated - it should be "All three EC members have been out of jail for three weeks and counting"

As it stands its completely inaccurate.

Jai Dee, close the thread and start another one about EC selection, please.

Good idea... EC topic continued here.

/Closed.