The Election Commission (EC) has aborted its plan to allow high school scouts to assist at polling stations in eight southern provinces for fear that they could be hurt if violence erupts.
Initially, the EC planned to use school scouts throughout the country to help polling station officials verify the list of eligible voters and assist the elderly and disabled at polling stations.
But the EC cancelled the plan in the eight southern provinces where no election candidates were able to register for the Feb 2 poll due to protests by the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC).
Even though there are no candidates, the EC is still duty bound to organise the election in the provinces if it is not postponed. People can still turn up to register a "no vote" on the ballot.
Sompong Tungrerk, director of the election commission of Krabi, one of the eight provinces, lauded the cancellation, saying children should not be put at risk.
He said he had earlier received many complaints from parents and teachers who were concerned about students' safety at the polling stations.
Mr Sompong said he forwarded these complaints to the EC along with a request for a revision of the plan to assign the school scouts to assist at the polls.
"Initially, the EC wanted the children to observe the merits of democracy, but this time we just don't want them to have a bad experience of seeing adults fighting with one another or to be confronted by the whistle-blowing protesters themselves," he said.
Sombat Sitthibutr, acting director of Nakhon Si Thammarat provincial election commission, said the province had already trained about 160 scouts to assist the local election committee at the polling stations.
But the plan was later scrapped after some parents refused to allow their children to take part in the activity because they were PDRC supporters, Mr Sombat said.