Thailand Election 2019: 2+2=5 ?
With many Thais enthusiastically tweeting foul play and memes ridiculing the recent election results, and international observers pointing to the rife of electoral flaws, the question now is; when will the next election be?
Thailand’s recent election that was supposed to set the country towards normality is potentially becoming a catalyst for further political contention instead.
Hashtags like #บัตรเขย่ง (Tip Toed Ballots = a term describing a situation when the number of the total ballot counts does not correspond with the number of voters who registered at the voting posts), #บัตรเกิดใหม่ในหีบ (Reborned Ballots = a term describing an abrupt increase of 4,493,145 vote ballots), #แบบนี้ก็ได้หรอคะ (Is This Ok = a term describing the bewilderment towards the recent election), lining up next to #ThailandElection2019.
Some tweets simply accuses the Election Committee of tainting with the election results, and of course, some are adorned with humorous memes poking at the EC and Gen. Prayut.
According to AP, The Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) said the announcement of some preliminary results that were “wildly inaccurate” damaged the “perceived integrity of the general election.”
Reuters UK reported that rights groups had called on the military government to allow foreign observers to monitor the election, but only ANFREL was given permission. ANFREL had hoped to deploy 80 observers, but permission to monitor the poll only came on March 14, so less than half were actually present to observe..
“As international observers, we have our own limitations. We can’t challenge the law of the country,”
ANFREL Secretary-General Rohana Nishanta Hettiarachchie, who is also head of the Thai monitoring mission, told Reuters of the visa problems.
“The legal framework itself is not supporting the free and fair elections.”
It is unclear what the results of the EC’s announcement of the elections will be. Nothing is official yet, and it will likely drag on till after the coronation ceremony of Rama X in May this year.
However, if the election has been tainted, the powers that are behind the tampering should keep in mind that claiming 2+2=5 will be very bad for business, as it will most definitely make finance and accounting impossibly difficult.