Complex senatorial voting system may allow manipulation, say experts

Assoc Prof Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, from Thammasat University’s Faculty of Law, said the Election Commission (EC) was unlikely to announce the vote result by July 2 as scheduled because the voting system is very complex. The system requires six rounds of voting in the district, provincial and national levels.

The EC has started preparing for the selection of new senators now that the current junta-appointed Senate’s five-year term expires on Friday.

“I believe the voting process is too complicated for the EC to meet the July 2 deadline for announcing voting results,” Prinya said.

He was speaking at a panel discussion organised by the Thai Journalists Association on Thursday.

He also said that the EC’s regulations on the introduction of senatorial candidates were “problematic” as it restricted freedom and could impact transparency. Prinya also said that he believes the EC went beyond its legal powers when it decided that potential senators can only introduce themselves instead of campaigning, and the introduction can only be done through electronic media. Anybody violating these regulations could face imprisonment, a fine or a ban from future elections.

Prinya called on the EC to make video recordings of the voting publicly available and allow media observers to ensure transparency.

Ratchaphong Jamjirachaiyakul from human rights group iLaw, said at the discussion that the EC’s limits on candidates’ introduction could “encourage vote fixing”. He added that it would be easier for certain groups of candidates to try and manipulate the vote, adding that if the number of applicants was increased, it would become more difficult to tamper with the result.

Seri Suwanphanon, one of the outgoing senators, said at the panel discussion that there could be vote fixing by certain groups of candidates, but he does not think the voting results would be totally manipulated.

He also pointed out that tampering can also be done by mobilising as many candidates as possible from the same political networks.

As per the Constitution, applicants will vote among themselves over six rounds to eventually select 10 senators from each of the 20 eligible professional groups, with a reserve list of five candidates for each group.

The eligible fields include law and justice, education, public health, agriculture, science and technology, mass communication, employees or workers, business owners, tourism-related professions, industrialists, artists or athletes, independent professionals, women, and elderly, disabled or ethnic groups.

At the district level, candidates will vote within their group and the five people with the most votes will proceed to an inter-group voting round, in which they select their favourite candidates from other randomised groups.

At this stage, the candidates from each professional group will be cut down to three – or 60 for all the 20 groups from every district.

These shortlisted candidates – 55,680 from 928 districts nationwide – will then proceed to the provincial level, where two winners will be acquired for each group – 40 for each of the country’s 77 provinces.

That will result in 3,080 senatorial candidates contesting at the national level, where they will repeat the intra-group and inter-group voting to get 10 winners for each of the 20 groups. These 200 final winners will become new senators.

This is the first time that such a complicated voting system is being used in the country, which has seen 12 sets of senators since Thailand’s first Senate was installed in 1946.