Eligible Thai voters living abroad can cast their votes between April 25 - May 5 ahead of the May 14 election, with the actual date they can vote to be fixed by the Thai embassy and consulate in each country, Election Commission (EC) secretary-general Sawaeng Boonmee said on Monday.
Mr Sawaeng said the EC had been informed by the Foreign Ministry that there might be some problems with the overseas voting in Sudan, a country in northeast Africa, where a civil war is going on.
With cooperation between the EC, Thailand Post, the Foreign Ministry's Department of Consular Affairs, Airports of Thailand and Thai Airways International, the overseas ballot papers will be delivered in diplomatic pouches or by embassy officials who will hand over them directly to the EC by May 9. They will then be forwarded separately to the 400 constituencies, depending on where each voter is registered, for safekeeping. They will be counted at the same time as the ballots cast at polling stations on May 14, he said.
The EC issued a press release on Monday, saying:
• 128 committees have been set up to examine and investigate petitions against election results.
• 88 intelligence teams have been set up to gather information for use in EC investigations into all petitions.
• 400 rapid deployment teams have been set up for the prevention and suppression of election fraud and to arrest and detain people suspected of violating the election and political parties laws. Their area of operations will cover all 77 provinces.
• A centre has been set up to coordinate investigations and receive complaints about election fraud.
• The EC has opened the ตาสับปะรด app for people to inform the EC of vote-buying. The app can be downloaded on both the IOS and Android operating systems.