Electoral Commission of Thailand

Logo on a door in the building of the election commission

The Thai Election Commission ( Thai คณะ กรรมการ การ เลือกตั้ง , RTGS Khana Kammakan Kan-Lueakdang , กก ต for short ; English Election Commission of Thailand , ECT ) is an "independent authority" prescribed by the Thai constitution , which is responsible for the correct implementation of parliamentary and local elections as well as referendums is responsible. The electoral commission has been extremely active and controversial in the past. By forcing new elections and disqualifying candidates, it influenced the outcome of the 2000 Senate elections and the 2006 and 2007 parliamentary elections.

The Chairman is Ittiporn Boonprakong (since August 2018), the Secretary General is Jarungvith Phumma (since May 2018).

history

The electoral commission was created in its current form as a result of the 1997 constitutional reform.

On May 10, 2010, in the wake of the 2010 riots in Bangkok , the home of Chairman Apichart Sukkhakanont was attacked with bombs made from fireworks.

In November 2010, the Constitutional Court ruled four to two votes against a lawsuit against the Democratic Party for embezzlement of funds from the 2005 election commission. The court named formal errors as reasons.

Parliamentary election 2011

On July 12, 2011, the commission opened an investigation into the Pheu Thai Party (PTP) campaign. Specifically, the participation of Thaksin Shinawatra and other people excluded from politics is suspected in the PTP election campaign. On July 19, she dismissed all complaints and confirmed the original result.

General election 2014

In the wake of the protests in Thailand in 2013/2014 , the electoral commission claimed that it was entitled to postpone the election date set by the government on February 2, 2014. On January 24, 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously in favor of the electoral commission.

General election 2019

In the run-up to the parliamentary elections in March 2019, the electoral commission redesigned the constituencies in November 2018, the number of which had been reduced from 400 to 350. However, the commander of the military junta ("National Council for the Maintenance of Peace"), General Prayut Chan-o-cha , stopped publishing the map of the new constituencies. In doing so, he relied on Article 44 of the transitional constitution, which grants him far-reaching special powers. Prayut's order delayed the announcement of the constituency boundaries and allowed the commission to tailor the constituencies at will - regardless of the requirements of the previous electoral laws. The opposition Pheu-Thai party and the “Open Forum for Democracy” foundation feared Gerrymandering in favor of the parties that supported the junta.

The month before the election, the electoral commission asked the Constitutional Court to ban the Thai Raksa Chart party. This was close to the camp of the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the " red shirts ". She had chosen Princess Ubol Ratana , the older sister of King Maha Vajiralongkorn , as the top candidate, who had renounced her royal title in 1972 when she married an American. Nevertheless, the electoral commission saw the nomination of a member of the royal family as a violation of the principles of the constitutional monarchy. The Constitutional Court followed the Commission's request.

After the election, the electoral commission disqualified the elected candidate in a constituency in Chiang Mai province , a member of the opposition Pheu-Thai party . He had donated money and a watch to a prominent monk during the election campaign. The election had to be repeated in the constituency. One month after the election, the election commission announced that it would allocate the seats allocated according to party lists according to a different formula than initially assumed. As a result, even the smallest parties that received fewer than 71,000 votes (approx. 0.2%) each received one seat. This means that a total of 27 parties are represented in parliament - more than ever before - including eleven parties with only one seat each As a result, parties lost seats compared to the model initially adopted. The New Future party , which was opposed to the military junta, was hit hardest , with seven fewer seats than expected. As a result, the anti-junta coalition lost its initially adopted majority and only had 245 seats. The Thai Constitutional Court found the new regulation to be lawful on May 8, 2019.

Also in May 2019, the electoral commission charged the chairman of the New Future party, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit , with violating the right to vote. She accused him of having owned shares in a media company shortly before the election, which election candidates are not allowed to do. This led to a suspension of Thanathorn's parliamentary mandate by the Constitutional Court. In December 2019, the electoral commission requested the Constitutional Court to dissolve the New Future party because Thanathorn had granted his party loans worth $ 6.3 million.

composition

The following parts of this section seem since 2017 is out of date to be : data refer to the Constitution of 2007. Since 2017 there is a new one.
Please help to research and insert the missing information .

The election commission consists of a chairman and four other members. These are determined by the King for a period of seven years based on the recommendation of the Senate . Three members are proposed to the Senate beforehand by a seven-member committee. This consists of the presidents of the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, the President of the House of Representatives , the parliamentary opposition leader and one representative each from the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, who are not judges. The constitutional court proposes two further members as such.

The members of the electoral commission must be at least forty years old, have a professional university degree, hold no political office or mandate, belong to any other constitutional body and have not belonged to any political party in the three years prior to their appointment.

The General Secretary of the Election Commission is responsible for day-to-day business.

Web links

• Office of the Election Commission of Thailand. In: Official website. Retrieved July 6, 2011 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} History of the ECT ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (english; accessed on June 8, 2012) 
2. ↑ Veteran diplomat Ittiporn selected to be next EC president. In: The Nation , July 31, 2018.
3. ↑ Mongkol Bangprapa: Jarungvith named new EC sec-gen. In: Bangkok Post , May 9, 2018.
4. ↑ Strangers attack the election commission in Thailand. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . May 10, 2010, accessed July 4, 2011 . 
5. ↑ Nicola Glass: Forbearance with the ruling party. In: the daily newspaper . November 29, 2010, accessed July 6, 2011 . 
6. ↑ Investigation initiated against the winner. In: ORF . July 13, 2011, accessed July 14, 2011 . 
7. ^ Clear the way for the first head of government. In: ORF. July 19, 2011. Retrieved July 19, 2011 . 
8. ↑ Election date in Thailand before postponement
9. ↑ watchdog demands govt stop meddling with EC. In: Bangkok Post , November 19, 2018.
10. ↑ EC under microscope for gerrymandering over designing of boundaries. In: The Nation , November 22, 2018.
11. ↑ Thai court bans Thai Raksa Chart party for nominating princess as PM. Channel News Asia, March 7, 2019.
12. ↑ Election rerun in Chiang Mai as Pheu Thai winner banned. In: Bangkok Post (online), April 24, 2019.
13. ^ List-MP calculation method is constitutional, court rules. In: Bangkok Post (online), May 8, 2019.
14. ↑ Andrew Nachemson: Thailand's Thanathorn unfazed despite series of legal challenges. AlJazeera, May 30, 2019.
15. ↑ Panarat Thepgumpanat, Panu Wongcha-um: Thai election panel wants opposition party dissolved over loans from leader. Reuters, December 11, 2019.
16. ↑ ^{a b} Section 229ff, Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (english; accessed on June 8, 2012) 
17. ↑ Sections 229–232, Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand 2007 ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (english; accessed on June 8, 2012) 
18. ↑ Structure of the ECT ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 21 kB)