BANGKOK, April 1 (TNA) – Activists and university students
have pushed ahead with their bid to impeach the Election Commissioners over the
slow election results while some express supports for the commissioners.
Following demonstrations over the weekend demanding EC
members’ resignation, Secretary-general of the Association for the Protection
of the Constitution Srisuwan Janya collected signatures for a petition to
demand the dismissal of seven EC members.
He claimed that the EC breached Constitutional duty in their
performance by delaying the election results, voiding some 1,500 ballots of
overseas vote and allowing discrepancies in total ballots.
The Association planned to gather signatures and submit them
to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NAAC) on April 8, he said.
Since the first election since 2014 coup was held on Sunday,
March 24, the EC has announced unofficial election results of 350
constituencies. It has said the full
official results, including the party-list MPs will be announced in full by May
9 as stipulated by the Constitution. It
will have to respond to over 100 complaints regarding vote-rigging allegations.
The EC has also faced growing pressure from other activist
groups and university students who staged street protests and rallying for
on-line petition which reached over 800,000 signatures.
Several hundreds of people joined a protest led by
anti-military activists. Holding
placards and shouting slogans condemning the EC, they walked at Bangkok’s
landmarks such as the Victory Monument and the Ratchaprasong intersection.
In their statement, the demonstrators accuse the EC of
lacking transparency in the election. They aim to gather 20,000 signatures to
file a complaint with the NAAC.
Some other activist groups, however, voiced their moral
supports for the EC, pointing to the EC’s duty to follow the laws and
regulation given the complicating electoral system. They urged the public for understanding as it
was the first election under the 2017 Constitution.
One Right One Vote civic group’s leader Somsak Pholchan on
Monday said the group viewed that the EC had to handle “sensitive issues”
surrounding the election. The
commissioners must cautiously enforce the laws and if a mistake occurred they
were held responsible, he said.
Somsak and group members presented flowers to EC members at the
EC’s head office in Bangkok. (TNA)
