EC warns Senate seat aspirants not to campaign, or exchange votes

EC secretary-general Sawang Boonmee said senatorial candidates caught campaigning or begging for support or promising to exchange votes with peer candidates could face election ban for life.

The elections for 200 Senate seats will be held in three levels. The election at the district level will be held on June 9, at the provincial level on June 16 and at the national level on June 26, Sawang said, adding the results would be announced on July 2. Candidacy registration opens on May 13.

On Sunday, Sawang made a Facebook post, explaining why senatorial candidates could not be allowed to campaign or beg for support.

Sawang said the Senate is a chamber of specialists, representing 20 professional groups, unlike the House of Representatives, which is a chamber of people’s representatives.

Sawang said the Constitution has designed senators to have political neutrality and they must be elected by other specialists, who also apply for Senate seats.

As a result, Sawang said, senatorial candidates can only introduce themselves as who they are and the experience they have to represent their professional groups.

Since senators are supposed to be specialists of professional groups, they are supposed to be well-known among their professional groups so they don’t have to campaign apart from making the simple introduction.

Sawang said if any senatorial candidates were found to exchange votes with other peer candidates, they would be deemed as colluding in the election and would be banned from elections for life as ruled by the Supreme Court in 2019 in two cases.

Sawang said if some candidates hire others to stand in the election or if they hire others to stand in the election just to vote for them, they could even face jail terms and fines for election fraud.

Sawang also advised would-be candidates not to join any Line group of candidates or any other social media groups among them as doing so could lead to allegations that they had formed a group to exchange votes or collude in the election results.