Election Commission of Thailand

The Thai general election of 2006, was held on 9 April for the House of Representatives and 19 April for the Senate. The main opposition parties, composed of the Democrat Party, the Chart Thai Party, and the Mahachon Party, boycotted the election on the grounds that Thaksin Shinawatra's government had unfairly called an election to divert public attention form the Shin Corp scandal. Despite this, the election went ahead.

On 3 April 2006, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) petitioned the Administrative Court to suspend the results of the election and accused the Election Commission of violating voter privacy. It accused the commission of placing voting booths so that voters' backs were to the public, when in all previous elections, voters faced the public, with a barrier one-half meter tall at the front of the booth separating the voter from the public. The commission claimed the new arrangement was designed to prevent various forms of polling fraud including the use of cameras by voters to take photographs of their ballots. After the 2005 election, cameras and camera phones were banned from voting stations due to fears that canvassers would demand ballot photographs in return for money.[2][3] However, the PAD claimed that this allowed onlookers to peek over voters' shoulders and see who they voted for.[4][5]

The elections were eventually declared invalid by Thailand's Constitutional Court, which found the positioning of voting booths violated voter privacy. The Constitutional Court forced the Election Commission to resign over its management of the April elections. The court failed to persuade the EC president to resign. It did, however, prevent the Senate from appointing a replacement for commissioner Jaral Buranapansri, who had died. This prevented the commission from achieving a quorum. It later found the remaining commissioners guilty of malfeasance and jailed them for one night. An entirely new commission was appointed.

Polling Station during the 2007 election

A number of MPs (mainly those elected for the PPP) were given "red cards" for alleged vote buying, meaning they would not be able to contest the resulting by-elections. Other MPs were issued "yellow cards" and not banned from contesting the by-elections.[6] By 3 January 2008, the Election Commission had endorsed 397 MPs and was still investigating 83 MPs for fraud.[7]

By-elections were held on 13 January, 17 January, 20 January (the day before the first session of the newly elected parliament) and 27 January 2008.[8] The Electoral Commission was still looking into allegations of fraud by PPP deputy leader Yongyuth Tiyaphairat. If given a red card, the PPP faced dissolution. PPP officials stated that they are not worried about dissolution, and that they would simply find a new party instead; local reports stated that a likely candidate for takeover by PPP members would be the Thai Land Power Party (Palang Pandin Thai Party).[9]

Disqualified were:

• PPP
  • red cards for Prakit Poldej, Pornchai Srisuthiyothin, Rungroj Thongsri – Buri Ram Province constituency 1[10]
  • yellow cards for Boonlert Krudkhunthod, Linda Cherdchai, Prasert Chanruangthong – Nakhon Ratchasima Province Constituency 3[11]
  • yellow card for Thanatorn Losunthorn – Lampang Province Constituency 1[12]
  • yellow cards for Surathin Phimarnmekhin, Anan Sriphan, Cherdchai Wichianwan – Udon Thani Province[13]
  • yellow cards for Prasop Busarakham and one other MP, with Busarakham's card changed to red later[14] – Udon Thani Province Constituency 3[15]
• Thai Nation Party
  • red cards for two MPs – Chai Nat Province[15]
• Democrat Party
  • yellow card for Suthat Jansaengsi – Phetchabun Province[13] 86
• For the Motherland Party
  • yellow cards for two MPs[16]

No major event occurred.

On 19 July, both Yingluck Shinawatra and Abhisit Vejjajiva were acknowledged as members of the House. On 27 July, the acknowledgement extended to further ninety four elected candidates. Now and eventually, the number acknowledged sufficed to constitute the House. This, however, did not include Jatuporn Prompan whom the Election Commission declared to have lost the suffrage due to failure to vote in both the previous and the present elections. The Constitution requires that a member of the House must possess the suffrage, and also prescribes that a person failing to vote in an election loses the suffrage but regains it once voting in the next election.[17]

The Election Commission's announcements of the acknowledgement were published in the Government Gazette as follows: