The Election Commission has ordered vote recounts at eight locations including one in Bangkok, and a fresh election at one polling station in Phayao.
According to the announcement issued on Tuesday night, a recount will be held for constitutional referendum ballots at polling station No.10 in Kannayao sub-district, Kannayao district of Bangkok. It will begin at the polling station at 10am on Sunday, Feb 22.
Vote recounts for the list-MP election on Feb 8 will take place at seven other locations in four provinces:
- Prachuap Khiri Khan: Polling stations 2 (tambon Rai Mai) and 8 (tambon Sam Roi Yot), Constituency 1 in Sam Roi Yot district
- Phetchabun: Polling station No.1 (tambon Na Yom), Constituency 1 in Muang district; polling station 2 (tambon Nong Phai), Constituency 4 in Nong Pai district
- Kamphaeng Phet: Polling stations 8 (tambon Nikhom Thung Pho Thalay) and 14 (tambon Thep Nakhon), Constituency 1 in Muang district
- Sakon Nakhon: Polling station No. 32 (tambon That Choeng Chum), Constituency 1 in Muang district.
A fresh election for constituency and list MPs has also been ordered at polling station No.6 (tambon Tha Wang Thong) of Constituency 1 in Muang district of Phayao province.
The commission said the times and places for the list-MP vote recounts and the fresh election would be announced later.
The EC had previously resolved to hold new voting at three polling stations:
- Unit 9, Constituency 15 in Kannayao, Bangkok
- Unit 3, Constituency 1, tambon Chai Sathan in Muang district of Nan
- Unit 4, Constituency 6, tambon Phon Sung in Chai Wan district of Udon Thani.
There were 99,487 polling stations in the Feb 8 general election.
Flood of complaints
The EC has faced a flood of complaints about its handling of the polls, with some legal actions already under way to press for the election results to be annulled and new polls held nationwide.
Voters and political parties have flagged thousands of instances nationwide, ranging from mishandling of ballots and ballot boxes to discrepancies in vote totals and online updates, and misbehaviour by polling officials.
Discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and the number of voters recorded at many polling stations have delayed the formal certification of the results.
The unofficial vote count has been stalled at 94% of the total cast since the day after the Feb 8 polls, while a count of at least 95% is required to certify the results.
Figures published on the EC’s unofficial results website indicate a difference of more than 66,000 between constituency and party-list ballots cast nationwide.
Under the electoral system, each voter is issued two ballot papers at the same time — one for the constituency race and one for the party-list vote — raising questions as to how such a discrepancy could have occurred.
As well, numerous individuals and organisations have argued that the use of barcodes and QR codes on ballots, supposedly for anti-counterfeiting and security reasons, contravened the constitutional requirement that voting be secret and untraceable to individual voters.
Following the backlash, the EC acknowledged that the serial numbers and barcodes could be used to trace a voter’s ballot paper, though it would take considerable effort to do so.
However, it insisted that the information would not be used to trace voters and would remain strictly confidential, with safeguards in place to prevent disclosure.
