Court rejects case accusing EC of creating unfair constituency boundaries

The EC was accused of being unfair in the way it redrew the boundaries of constituencies in the three provinces in petitions filed by Atavit Suwannapakdee, deputy leader and a Bangkok election candidate of the Chart Pattana Kla Party, Sakon Nakhon candidate Pattana Sapso from the Pheu Thai Party, and Sukhothai's Democrat candidates Wirat Wiriyapong and Pat Tangbenjapol.

They asked the court to order the EC to revoke its announcement of March 16 on constituencies, particularly the constituency boundaries in Bangkok, Sakon Nakhon, and Sukhothai.

The EC failed to adhere to constituency boundaries in the March 2019 election and redrew boundaries in a way that confused eligible voters, they said.

The EC’s March 16 announcement stated that in drawing the boundaries, each of the 400 constituencies should deviate no more than 10% from the average of 162,766 residents, based on Thailand’s population of 65,106,481 as of December 31, 2022.

Exceptions were made in cases where adjacent communities must be included in the same constituency to facilitate voting.

The court on Friday dismissed the cases, saying the EC announcement was in line with Article 86 of the Constitution on the designation of constituency boundaries for provinces with a population that exceed 162,766 and, as a result, have more than one constituency.

Atavit said on Friday that the court’s verdict set a precedent for future elections. He noted that it was the first time that the EC set a 10% ceiling for the allowable difference between the populations of constituencies.

The politician claimed that if this rule was used again, the EC could redraw new constituency boundaries in every election.

Meanwhile, the opposition Pheu Thai Party on Friday alleged that citizen ID cards were being “bought” from residents in the northeastern provinces of Amnat Charoen and Ubon Ratchathani ahead of the May 14 general election.

Pheu Thai secretary general Prasert Jantararuangtong said the party received complaints about possible electoral fraud, as a group of people was paying many eligible voters in exchange for their ID cards.

He claimed that the ID cards were used for online registration for advance and absentee voting and that eligible voters were being paid to vote for a particular political party.

Pheu Thai will file a complaint with provincial election offices in the two provinces asking them to investigate the alleged crime, Prasert said.