The Election Commission (EC) has indefinitely deferred announcing the certified results of the Senate election, citing unresolved issues that still need to be addressed.
Chairman Ittiporn Boonpracong said he disagreed with those who characterised the decision as a postponement. He said that July 3 was only a tentative date set for announcing the results.
The organic law on the Senate composition doesn’t stipulate an exact timeframe the vote results to be announced. It only requires that the EC set aside five days after the final round of the election to receive complaints.
The EC will announce the certified result when it is certain the election was clean, fair and lawful, said Mr Ittiporn.
When asked what exactly was holding the EC back, he simply said the announcement will come only after the EC completes the tasks that need to be done.
“This isn’t a postponement. The unfinished jobs will have to be done before the EC can make an announcement,” he said.
“The EC is still conducting a preliminary investigation into complaints received and will later announce the election result. So, don’t call it a postponement.”
Caretaker Senator Somchai Swangkarn said on Wednesday that the EC had asked the Secretariat of the Senate to prepare a place to receive the 200 new senators who will be reporting to the office starting from Sunday.
That move, he said, showed that the poll body’s decision not to announce the certified result on Wednesday was merely a tactic to avoid criticism.
The EC doesn’t want to be accused of failing to do its duty of ensuring the election was free and fair before rushing to have the result certified, said Mr Somchai.
The EC has so far reviewed more than a thousand complaints about suspected ineligibility of a number of senators-elect and alleged violations of the election law, a source said on Tuesday.
Some people who followed the process closely said they had detected many unusual things. For instance, many candidates had not voted for themselves, although they were allowed to do so. This indicated that their sole purpose for registering as candidates was to vote for certain people as directed by certain interest groups or political parties.
Many senators-elect have also faced criticism for official profiles that were incomplete, inaccurate, inflated or plain misleading. More than a few were said to have connections with political parties or other vested interest groups. The senate is supposed to be non-political.
Mr Somchai himself has submitted evidence of what he said was poll fraud during the multi-level Senate election that wrapped up last week.
His complaint concerns four suspected cases in Si Sa Ket, Amnat Charoen, Buri Ram and Trang provinces, said the senator.
“Don’t ever say you did not have the evidence to prove these alleged misconduct cases because it was already submitted to you along with the complaints,” Mr Somchai said, referring to the Election Commission.
The three-stage election process concluded on June 26, when 2,989 candidates — winnowed down from mnore than 45,000 prior to the first round — entered the national-level poll, voting among themselves for their preferred candidates at Impact Muang Thong Thani in Nonthaburi.
The new senate will comprise 200 members drawn from 20 professional groups to succeed the 250 military-appointed senators whose term expired on May 10.
Unlike their predecessors, new senators are not empowered to participate in parliament’s election of a prime minister. However, they will continue to review legislation passed by the House, appoint members of independent agencies and check the performance of the executive government.
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