“PUBLIC WILL LOSE CONFIDENCE”
With nearly 95 per cent of polling stations reporting, preliminary results showed the Bhumjaithai Party leading with 193 of the 500 parliamentary seats.
The results have yet to be officially certified by the election commission, a process that must be completed within 60 days of the general election.
“If transparency is not shown quickly, the public will lose confidence,” former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who leads the Democrat Party, told reporters on Wednesday. “Whenever a process does not have legitimacy, we have seen how it goes in other countries.”
The situation has sparked small protests nationwide, with a Thai hashtag #RecountForTheWholeCountry trending on X in Thailand since Monday.
The election commission said as of Wednesday, it had received 113 formal complaints, all of which were being investigated.
“If an incident occurred at any polling station – whatever the shortcoming – you can file a complaint,” Phasakorn Siriphakayaporn, deputy secretary-general of the election commission, said at a press conference. “We will ensure fairness.”
Vote62, an independent election watchdog, has recorded more than 5,000 complaints nationwide, including over 1,000 cases where official vote count tallies at polling stations differed from those of independent observers, according to its website.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thailand-election-irregularities-recount-anutin-charnvirakul-5922801
