EC announces constituencies nationwide

BANGKOK, Sept 19 (TNA) -- The Election Commission (EC) has announced nationwide constituencies and the numbers of representatives drop in 23 provinces compared with those in 2014. The EC announcement was published in the Royal Gazette. It sets 350 constituency representatives, each of whom represents one constituency or 189,110 people. As of Dec 31, 2017, there were 66,188,503 citizens. The number of representatives drops from 36 to 33 in the North, from 126 to 116 in the Northeast, from 82 to 76 in the Central Plains, from 53 to 50 in the South, and from 33 to 30 in Bangkok. Meanwhile, the numbers of representatives remain unchanged at 26 in the East and 19 in the West. Provincial election chiefs will map three choices of constituencies in their provinces in 14 days and sound out opinions from political parties and people in 10 following days. Three days afterwards provincial election chiefs will decide if their planned constituency boundaries should change. The EC will finalize constituency boundaries in the next 20 days. The process will be completed in mid-November. The MP election law will take effect on Dec 11 and the election can occur on Feb 24, 2019, at the soonest. (TNA)