Election manipulation was at play in the race to favour some candidates, a winning candidate in the Senate election has claimed.
Nanthana Nanthawarophas, a senator-elect from a media professional group, said that more than 100 candidates who lost in the election would file a complaint with the Election Commission (EC) to ask it to investigate alleged vote rigging.
She noted that the top seven candidates with the most votes were seen staying together in groups and refused to talk to other candidates during voting.
"There were acts of collusion to manipulate the voting results by some groups to favour some specific candidates," she claimed.
"The EC must investigate if political parties were behind it," she said.
Ms Nanthana said she did not want the EC to nullify the Senate election outright due to allegations of collusion and vote manipulation because she did not want the caretaker Senate appointed by the coupmakers to stay in office any longer.
But the poll agency should investigate the matter and take action against those involved in alleged irregularities, she said.
She also said the Senate election process was too complicated and was marred by fraud claims and suggested that in future Senate elections, people should be allowed to elect senators directly.
Writing on Facebook, Somchai Swangkarn, a caretaker senator, claimed that several individuals had been hired to participate in the election process simply to vote for candidates backed by certain interest groups at district, provincial and national levels.
Some candidates running at the district level were paid 4,000 baht each for registration fees, health checkup costs, travel expenses, and photo costs, he wrote.
If they progressed to the provincial level, they would receive another 2,000-3,000 baht to stay in hotels in downtown areas in the provinces on the eve of the provincial-level election, Mr Somchai wrote.
"But as it happened, these people did not vote for themselves, but instead, almost unanimously, voted for certain candidates who each ended up among the top 10 being selected as senators in each of the 20 groups," he wrote.
Internet Dialogue on Law Reform (iLaw) manager Yingcheep Atchanont also posted on Facebook that even though Angkhana Neelapaijit, a former member of the National Human Rights Commission, was a winning candidate representing a civil society group, she still won fewer votes than some lesser-known winning candidates from Buri Ram.
"One candidate from Buri Ram was a former school director while another candidate was a former village health volunteer also from Buri Ram," Mr Yingcheep said.
"They are high on the list of the top 10 with the most votes. They gained more votes than Ms Angkhana, who is No.9 and lower on the list."
