Thailand’s upcoming election on May 14 has been marred by a recent incident of mislabeled envelopes containing ballot sheets. The Secretary-General of the Election Commission (EC), Sawaeng Boonmee, has addressed concerns over around 100 envelopes being mislabeled with the wrong constituency code numbers in Nonthaburi province. Sawaeng attributed the mistake to election officials and has since assured the public that the error will not affect votes cast by advance voters and will be rectified before the upcoming election.
According to Sawaeng, officials began investigating after several voters complained about the five-digit postal code on their envelopes not matching their own postal code. However, they soon discovered that the code on the envelopes was the electoral constituency code, which also had five digits, rather than a postal code. As a result, roughly 100 envelopes intended for Constituency 2 in Nonthaburi were mistakenly addressed to Constituency 4.
While Sawaeng has given assurances that the number of ballots cast will be thoroughly verified to ensure that it matches the number of voters who showed up to vote, the EC will investigate whether the mistake was due to human error or intentional.
The incident has caused concerns about the transparency of Thailand’s election process, as several political parties and candidates have raised concerns about potential voter fraud and irregularities. Nevertheless, Sawaeng has reaffirmed that the EC is committed to conducting a fair and transparent election and will work to address any concerns that arise.
As Thailand approaches its first election since the 2019 coup, the incident in Nonthaburi highlights the need for a transparent and secure electoral process to ensure that the election results accurately reflect the will of the people.
