New EC faces tough tasks
Anew Election Commission (EC) has been partly chosen and will unofficially take office in 10 days. It will temporarily have five members instead of seven, the same number as the outgoing poll agency. And it will work under the same, uncontrollable handicap as the now lame-duck EC. Not only is there no election to prepare for, the military-enforced ban on political activities means the EC cannot even supervise the primaries or campaigning.
None of that is the fault of the five new commissioners. The five men were selected, then approved by majority votes of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA). Two other nominated men were rejected because they failed to win enough NLA votes. Because five is a quorum on the nominally seven-person EC, the new commission is fully qualified. NLA president Pornpetch Wichitcholachai said he expects the resignations of all current EC members on his desk by July 26.
The NLA quite properly set high standards for the incoming candidates for the EC. The five new members selected last week have excellent reputations. Most importantly, none of the men has political action anywhere in his background. None among them is known to have spoken or acted in a partisan manner. That must be the first test of every EC member, if the commission is to have public trust.
The five selected candidates have excellent records. They comprise an academic, two career bureaucrats and two with legal backgrounds. This is the point where criticism is valid. The lack of diversity is rather obvious. There are no women. There is no one from business or industry. While voters come from myriad backgrounds, the new EC members are restricted.
Arguably the most obvious sector of society still missing is an EC member who has represented civil society — unions, NGOs, consumer groups or community affairs. That said, one approved member of the new EC, Thawatchai Terdpaothai, has served in the provinces. Between 2009 and the latest military coup, he was governor of Prachin Buri, then Rayong and finally Lampang.
Itthiphon Boonprakong has extensive experience in the international realm, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Most recently he was director-general of the Treaties and Legal Affairs Department. Suntud Sirianuntapiboon is a lecturer of environmental technology at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. He has a superb academic record. With a PhD in applied microbiology, his own publications have been cited internationally more than 1,200 times.
The other two new members are career veterans of the judiciary. Both Supreme Court chief justice Chatchai Chanpraisri and judge Pakorn Mahannop were selected twice for the EC by a 176-judge panel.
This is a difficult time to be a commissioner The new charter makes unprecedented demands of political parties, candidates and the electorate. Almost everything traditional about the poll process has been thrown out. A brand new system of pre-election “primary” votes are mandated to select candidates. A new vote-counting system will strive for inclusiveness, not first-past-the-post winner and losers. Then there are what seem to be attempts by the junta to tilt the process, as it did during the 2016 charter referendum.
The public expects the new EC to resist all such pressure and tricks. The next election must be scrupulously fair. It must be honest, but it must also be seen to be honest — everywhere by everyone. This is a very difficult task.
The new EC will begin working next month with one of the most difficult handicaps ever placed on such a body. The regime’s uncalled-for ban on political activities is an effective straitjacket on the EC as well as on political parties. Worst of all is the stubborn refusal of the prime minister to set an election date for everyone to work for. Nevertheless, nothing short of perfection by the EC will be acceptable.
The public expects the new EC to resist all such pressure and tricks.