Election law passed

BANGKOK, Jan 26 (TNA) -- The National Legislative Assembly on Thursday passed an organic law on MP election and delaying its promulgation for 90 days, consequently postponing in the next general election to early next year. The assembly discussed the law for about 14 hours. Important sections of the law include Section 2 that delays the imposition of the law for 90 days after it is published in the Royal Gazette to let political parties prepare themselves for the next polls. As a result, the next election will occur in February or March 2019 instead of this November. Under the new law, the people who fail to cast their vote will be banned from being political government officials and local administrators for two years. Vote-no campaigns are prohibited. Political parties are allowed to organise entertainment activities to support their vote campaigns but expenditure for the purpose is limited at 20% of their campaign budgets for the sake of fair competiton. The vote-casting period was set from 7am to 5pm. (TNA)