Election observers say face limitations in Thai poll
BANGKOK: An international observer group said it would face limitations in judging to what extent Thailand’s general election today is free and fair, partly because it was granted accreditation too late to get more than 35 monitors into the country.
Voters go to the polls today in the first election since a 2014 military coup in a race broadly cast as between the current junta leader, who is seeking to stay on through the ballot, and antijunta parties led by loyalists to exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The Bangkok-based Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), which sought accreditation in November, had hoped to deploy 80 observers for an electorate of 51.4 million people.
But permission to monitor the poll was only granted on March 14 and so less than half that number will be on the ground for an election critics say has been stacked in favour of the military by the country’s junta.
“Unfortunately ... we were not able to bring all the observers we had planned to because of visa issues,” ANFREL Secretary- General Rohana Nishanta Hettiarachchie, and head of the Thai vote mission, told Reuters.
Asked to respond, a government spokesman and a spokeswoman at the foreign ministry referred Reuters to the election commission, which was not available for comment.
Thailand’s vote comes after nearly five years of direct military rule and is viewed as a contest between junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha - who wants to stay on as elected leader - and a ‘democratic front’ of parties led by the ousted pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai.