By Thai Newsroom Reporters
ABOUT 2,000 PEOPLE contesting next month’s triple-tiered senatorial election nationwide have been found so far to be disqualified by law, according to an official of the Election Commission.
Out of a total of 48,117 applicants running in the unprecedented election of its kind for a total of 200 senators, 2,021 have been found to either be currently registered as members of political parties or have failed to exercise their suffrage rights in previous district- or provincial- or national-level elections, thus being immediately disqualified as senatorial contestants.
Of the 2,021 disqualified applicants, 1,402 have been found to be currently attached to respective political parties, thus deemed as impermissible by law, the polling agency’s official said.
In unprecedented electoral mode, none of the senatorial candidates will be voted by any constituents but picked by fellow contestants at each of the triple-tiered stages, ranging from district and provincial to national levels.
All contestants, divided into 20 categories of profession, will not only pick candidates of the same professions as theirs but vote for those of different careers.
The district-level election is scheduled for June 9, followed by the provincial level on June 16 and finally the national level on June 26 with official results of the complicated race to parliament scheduled to be announced by the polling agency on July 2.
The 200 new senators will no longer enjoy the highly contentious power provided by the coup junta-designed constitution to vote alongside people-elected MPs for prime minister as had been the case of the 250 junta-named senators who have already finished their five-year term.
One of the most outstanding contestants appears to be “non-partisan” former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat who is more or less speculated to be named Senate speaker, given his personal status as a brother-in-law to the billionaire, politically powerful de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra.
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Top and Front Page: Parliament meeting chamber. Photos: Thai Rath
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