We Watch calls on EC to relax Senate election rules, inclusion of the public
An election watchdog group on Thursday called on the Election Commission (EC) to suspend its Senate election rules, saying they were designed to gag candidates, the media and the people.
We Watch posted on its Facebook page that the Senate election rules of the EC were too strict and the regulations scared away those who wanted to contest the election.
We Watch alleged that the EC had destroyed the Senate election atmosphere by threatening candidates with one-year imprisonment and 20,000-baht fines if they launched election campaigns.
The group noted that the EC allowed senatorial election candidates to introduce themselves only to peer candidates.
As a result, We Watch said, the candidates could not announce their candidacy on social media and this prevented public perception and inclusion.
We Watch said the regulations also affected the work of the media as senatorial candidates are prohibited from giving interviews to the media.
We Watch noted that media would be subject to legal penalties if their reports were deemed to help certain candidates.
The group added that severe penalties forced the media to be too careful, thus also affecting public inclusion.
We Watch called on the EC to suspend regulations for better inclusion of the public in the election.
