By Thai Newsroom Reporters
A TOTAL OF 48,117 people nationwide have applied to run for senator in next month’s unprecedented, complicated race to parliament, an official of the Election Commission said today (May 25).
Against earlier predictions of as many as 200,000 people contesting the senatorial election next month, only 48,117 have applied since last Monday until yesterday, the polling agency’s official said.
Among that total, the most senatorial contestants were reported in Sisaket, totaling 2,764, followed by Bangkok’s 2,489 and Chiang Mai’s 2,000.
The senatorial election is an unprecedented, triple-tiered process in which no constituents nationwide will be involved since all eligible candidates are voting among themselves to pick a total of 200 senior lawmakers.
The voting process is legally divided into three tiers ranging from district and provincial to national levels whilst all contestants are divided into 20 categories of professions with each picking two contenders at each level. Among a couple of candidates to vote for at each level, each of the contestants is legally allowed to pick themselves.
No senatorial candidates are legally allowed to be politically associated or be assisted either in direct or indirect fashion by any persons with political status at any levels.
Those who may be finally found to have broken the rules are liable to a one-year jail term or 20,000 baht in fine or both and have their individual right to run for any political position suspended for five years.
The district-level election is scheduled for June 9, the provincial-level election is scheduled for June 16 and the national-level race to parliament is set for June 26.
The polling agency has earlier said official results of the senatorial election nationwide will be announced on July 2.
Whilst Progressive Movement led by former Future Forward leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit has encouraged people in all parts of the country to run for senator, the application for which cost them 2,500 baht in cash each, “Big House” elements in all provinces are more or less believed to find their way to parliament.
“Big House” refers to certain provincially-based figures, either with current or previous political status at any levels, who may more or less apply “ammunition” and pressure, albeit in illegal, hush-hush fashion, on any constituents to get themselves or their associates elected for political positions, ranging from head of a tambon administration and a provincial administration to the national tier of MPs or senators or cabinet members. “Ammunition” refers to vote-buying cash handed out by electoral canvassers or candidates surreptitiously to constituents anywhere.
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Thai parliament meeting chamber. Top photo: Thai Rath, Front Page photo: INN News
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