A petition to nullify the results of last month’s election was rejected by the state watchdog agency.
Raksagecha Chaechai, chief executive of the Ombudsman’s Office, punted on the petition filed by a former candidate seeking to void the results, saying it fell outside his agency’s purview. He had previously said the request, filed by Ruangkrai Leekitwattana of the disbanded Thai Raksa Chart Party, would be evaluated and forwarded to the courts if found to have merit.
Post-election maneuvering has seen candidates invalidated and legal threats piled onto opposition figures who performed well in the March 24 poll. But over a month since the votes were cast, elections officials maintain that they won’t be ready to share the final results until early next month.
Petition to void March 24 election to be decided today
While it’s likely that junta leader Prayuth Chan-o-cha will be able to secure another term by stacking the upper house with loyalists, the composition of the lower house remains in question. The opposition Pheu Thai Party says it has the support to put together a government, as does the pro-military Phalang Pracharath.
The biggest factor in that outcome is the apportionment of party list seats. That’s become a matter of considerable debate given low public confidence in the independence of the body tasked with deciding – the Election Commission.
On Sunday, head commissioner Jarungvith Phumma said his body would consider up to three different methods for allocating the 150 party-list seats, with a decision to be made public prior to May 9.
The main factor seems to be whether to change the rules so single seats could be handed out as consolation prizes to even those parties which failed to win enough votes to qualify for one. Doing so would strengthen the hand of the establishment faction and help keep the likes of Pheu Thai and Future Forward out of power.
Raksagecha of the Ombudsman’s Office said he would forward to the courts another request by Ruangkrai, the former Thai Raksa Chart candidate, for an opinion on the commission’s allocation plan, a matter the Constitutional Court has already said it won’t touch.
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