Thailand Election: Voting Called Off In 9 Provinces

BANGKOK, February 2 (TNA) - Elections in nine provinces, all of them in the South of Thailand, were unable to be held on Sunday’s general election due to problems including no candidates contesting under the constituency system, no ballot papers for candidates contesting under the party-list system and lack of committee members manning booths, said Election Commission (EC) secretary-general Puchong Nutrawong. The problems arose because ballot boxes and papers stored at post offices in three southern provinces could not be delivered to other provinces in the region due to ongoing blockade by anti-government protesters of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) who are demanding for the ouster of the caretaker government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The nine southern provinces are Songkhla, Trang, Phatthalung, Phuket, Surat Thani, Ranong, Krabi, Chumphon and Phang-nga, said Mr. Puchong. In Bangkok, voting in five out of the total 33 constituencies could not be organised due to either blockade by PDRC protesters or because of the absence of ballot boxes, he said. Booths in 16 northern and 20 northeastern provinces could be opened without problems, according to Mr. Puchong. In summary, voting could be organised in 68 out of the total 77 provinces nationwide, he said. Sunday’s general election marked the first time that the election was marred by many obstacles and by-elections will have to be organised in order to produce at least 95 per cent of the total 500 members of the House of Representatives so that the Lower House could be convened. It would take months from now before the House of Representatives could be open and its members appointed a prime minister. (TNA)