Elections officials said they would announce 95 percent of the certified outcome of March’s election by tomorrow.
Members of the Election Commission met this morning to prepare the release later today the names of the 333 parliamentary candidates who prevailed at the polls in 350 constituencies in a process that has been tainted by suspicions of impropriety. The winners of party-list seats will be announced tomorrow, it said.
No reason was given for the omission of 17 races from the results, but 95 percent satisfies the legal threshold that must be announced under the law at this time. The commission said the rest of the results would be released Thursday.
In the aftermath of the March 24 poll, the commission announced that the military-backed Phalang Pracharath Party had won the popular vote in the kingdom’s long-anticipated general election while the opposition Pheu Thai Party, aligned with fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, was on track to win the most MP seats.
Update: Opposition candidates win most seats in Thai Parliament
The distinction has only created further uncertainty as to which party will ultimately control the lower house, given that only 350 of the body’s 500 seats are directly elected. The 150 party-list seats are allocated by each parties’ share of the popular vote, a process that has become a focus of contentious legal jostling.
Shortly after the unofficial results were released, seven pro-democracy parties, led by the Pheu Thai, said they would join forces to form a government, saying they had won enough parliamentary seats to sideline the pro-military faction led by the Phalang Pracharath.
Thaksin-aligned Pheu Thai forms anti-junta coalition with 6 other parties
“We want to stop the regime from hanging onto power,” said Sudarat Keyuraphan, Pheu Thai’s prime ministerial candidate.
On Friday, the commission announced it had disqualified 11 candidates from seven different parties.
Considerable frustration has been expressed by the public about the commission’s behind-the-scenes management of polling and its ballot-counting processes.
The integrity of the commission hasn’t been under the microscope like this since, well, not since the last time Thailand tried to stage general elections in 2014. Those results were later thrown annulled by the courts.
Nevertheless, the commission stands unmoved by complaints about its practices, blaming the delay in announcing the outcome – 46 days and counting – on concerns of foul play.
Junta legal adviser Wissanu Krea-ngarm said last week that a new government could be in place come June.
Related Stories:
Election 2019 unofficial results: Pheu Thai leads in seats, but overall winner anybody’s guess
Exit Poll indicates Thaksin-linked Pheu Thai Party to win most seats in Thai election
A timeline of Thailand’s turbulent political history since 2001
“Meme-ification” of politics fueled by fed-up first-time voters who grew up amid conflict
Chiang Mai goes to polls while air quality remains the most polluted in the world
Excitement, focus on the economy as Thai voters brave 34 degree temperatures (PHOTOS)
