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ANFREL:
Peaceful and orderly Thai election
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from
NAMFREL Election Monitor Vol.2, No.16
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The Asian Network for Free Elections,
which deployed more than 60 long- and short-term observers from 20
countries throughout Thailand to observe the July 3 parliamentary
election, hailed the conduct of the election as peaceful and
orderly. In a statement, ANFREL chair and Head of Mission Damaso G.
Magbual said, “The election period, in particular Election Day on
July 3rd, was managed well and without any major incident which
would call into question the election’s results. Where problems and
complaints exist, ANFREL encourages the ECT (Election Commission of
Thailand) and all involved stakeholders to thoroughly investigate
these cases and administer justice in a professional, objective, and
timely manner.” ANFREL also said that the ECT "performed admirably
to manage a process that has produced election results that
generally seem to reflect the will of the people." The Thai military
generally acted professionally and neutrally throughout the election
period, according to ANFREL, and it also commended Thai Prime
Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the Democrat Party for accepting the
election results and conceding defeat to the Pheu Thai party. The
party's standard bearer, Yingluck Shinawatra (sister of deposed
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra) emerged victorious after the
polls.
ANFREL, however, decried the
numerous allegations of vote buying, as well as incidences of
electoral violence and intimidation. "Vote buying and the
detrimental effect of money politics remains a long term challenge
for Thailand," according to ANFREL.
The organization also called
attention to the use of 2007's non-resident advance voter list as
basis for this year's advance voting, held on June 26. The use of
the old list, as well as the ECT's failure to sufficiently inform
voters of the need to reregister, "disenfranchised between 500,000
and 1 million people." According to ANFREL, the ECT also printed too
many excess ballots (12% instead of the law-mandated 7%) and was
unable to sufficiently explain why. ANFREL observers also noted that
village leaders (phuyaibahn) worked or congregated at polling
stations on election day. “In many countries within Asia, village
chiefs are kept from working at polling stations because the
enormous influence they command can unfairly sway voters,” explained
Mr. Magbual. They also observed that many phuyaibahns compromised
neutrality by working for political parties.
ANFREL also noted the lack of local
observers and party agents in the polling stations, and encouraged
political parties "to play a more active and constructive role in
strengthening the democratic process by engaging in more observation
during the elections."
Read ANFREL's Press statement here:
http://bit.ly/oiG8Y9
Read ANFREL's Preliminary report
(with recommendations) here:
http://bit.ly/pL3Wwe |
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