The chief of Khanu Woralaksaburi district police in Kamphaeng Phet province has been transferred for failing to report the tearing of lists of eligible voters for the Aug 7 charter referendum by two eight-year-old girls to superiors, said media reports.
Under an order signed by Pol Lt Gen Chanasit Wathanawarangkura, the Provincial Police Region 6 commissioner, Pol Col Itthi Chamnanmor, chief of the Khanu Woralaksaburi district police, was transferred to the Region 6's police operations centre, effective from July 18.
Pol Maj Gen Damrong Petpong, the Khamphaeng Phet provincial police chief, was also ordered to conduct a fact-finding investigation into shortcomings on the part of local police and report the result to Pol Lt Gen Chanasit as soon as possible.
According to Pol Maj Gen Damrong, the lists of eligible voters put up at a noticeboard in Wachirasan Suksa School in tambon Salok Bat of Khanu Woralaksaburi district were found to have been torn down on Saturday.
A subsequent investigation found that the documents were torn down by two eight-year-old girls who were playing around the board, which was also close to a temple where they had attended an ordination ceremony.
The girls were not aware the papers were lists of eligible voters and that they were state property. They would not receive any punishment as they are aged under 10 and had no intention of committing the offence, Pol Maj Gen Damrong said.
However, Pol Col Itthi, the district police chief, failed to report the incident to the superiors, including the Region 6 commissioner, leaving them to learn of it from media reports.
