Thai election looks likely to be delayed beyond Oct 15

The usual bureaucratic infighting and lack of attention to detail at the front end of a process may derail the Thai election scheduled for Oct 15.

from the Bangkok Post:

The Oct 15 general election will very likely be postponed, caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra conceded for the first time yesterday. And a candidate for the Election Commission has alleged there have been attempts to influence the selection process.

Mr Thaksin said the cabinet will have to discuss the election date with the incoming election commissioners.

But before any postponement of the date, the Senate must say exactly when it will be able to complete the selection of the five members of the Election Commission.

After that, the new commissioners must make it clear to the caretaker government what they plan to do about the election date, Mr Thaksin said after a meeting of his Thai Rak Thai party.

The Senate's EC vetting committee is currently listening to the explanations of eight of the 10 candidates who face allegations made against them in hundreds of letters of complaint.

Many of the letters questioned their impartiality.

EC staff accepted yesterday it would be almost impossible to have the polls on Oct 15 because of the complicated legal procedures involved in appointing the new commissioners which will probably take at least 18 days to complete.

For the elections to be on Oct 15, the law requires the EC to arrange for the registration of election candidates by Sept 12.

Supreme Court chief justice Wasant Soyphisuth, one of the candidates invited to clarify allegations against him, said yesterday that he had received a phone call during which the caller had tried to convince him to side with a certain party if he wanted to be confirmed as an election commissioner.

''I received the call just moments after I finished presenting my vision statement to the Senate's vetting committee,'' said Mr Wasant.

The caller offered him supporting votes in the Senate, but he turned down the offer.

Several other candidates had received similar phone calls, and they all knew which party the callers were working for, said Mr Wasant.

Mr Wasant believed his candidacy would be rejected by the Senate.

''A list was issued on Aug 11 showing that four candidates who would certainly not be made election commissioners would be Wasant, Kaewsan Atipho, Nam Yimyaem and Wicha Mahakhun.

So far, the list hasn't changed,'' Mr Wasant said.

However, he said it did not matter who eventually were appointed as the commissioners because all 10 had agreed that those who were not elected would still be asked to assist those appointed as election commissioners in the organisation of the general election.

Election commissioners had the right to appoint their own assistants, he said.

''It won't matter who the Senate votes for. They'll still get all 10 working at the EC,'' Mr Wasant said.

Another EC candidate noted that the issuance of the royal decree setting Oct 15 as the election date seemed to be incomplete. Udom Fuengfung, a senior judge of the South Bangkok Criminal Court, said the royal decree, which took effect on Aug 24, required that it be enforced by both the caretaker prime minister and the EC chairman.

Since the selection of new election commissioners was still not complete when it took effect, there was no Election Commission chairman.

That could render the issuing of the decree incomplete, he said.

If someone was to file a complaint on the matter, the Administrative Court might have to intervene and rule whether or not the issuance of the decree was indeed legally complete, said Mr Udom.