By Thai Newsroom Reporters
IN WHAT WAS seen as an untoward phenomenon, the total of counted ballots for constituency-based mode of Sunday’s election was found vastly unequal to that for party-listed mode and the Election Commission has not as yet given any explanation to the puzzling outcome.
According to reports on the polling agency’s official website, the total of counted constituency ballots and counted party ballots is over 34 million each but there are 66,939 more of the former than the latter used at 99,000-plus voting units nationwide. In the 2023 election, the reported gap between the totals of counted ballots for both electoral modes amounting to 39 million each was in total nine.
For instance, a single constituency of Prae and that of Sisaket, among elsewhere, reportedly saw the total of counted ballots for one electoral mode and that for the other as widely different as 10,000-plus each.
At the voting unit, the voter was simultaneously handed a couple of voting ballots – one for constituency-based mode and the other for party-listed mode, plus another ballot separately provided for a public referendum vote on the constitution rewriting issue.
Given the normal circumstances under which the voter drew a cross on the two electoral ballots – one for a candidate in constituency-based mode and the other for a party in party-listed mode, then stepped out from the voting booth toward a box provided for one mode next to another one for the other mode to drop in both of their ballots separately, the total of counted ballots for one mode was naturally meant to be roughly equal to that for the other.
Given those yet-unexplained, mysteriously unequal numbers, the Election Commission has been put to blame for alleged failure to stop any electoral rigging suspects from covertly adding “ghost ballots” to the good ones for constituency-based mode as showcasing in the vast differential between the totals of those counted ballots. Yet, no commissioners of the polling agency have come up with an unambiguous explanation to the mysteriously unequal numbers.
Sunday’s nationwide election has been riddled with allegations of electoral rigging and irregularities, specifically showcasing the unbecoming phenomenon in which some referees at many voting units had been allegedly hired by rogue candidates or their canvassers to rig votes and make them “elected” in the race to parliament. Those kickback-taking referees were suspected to have been told by certain local government officials personally connected with rogue contestants to surreptitiously assist in the alleged rigging conspiracy.
Such electoral shenanigans have prompted students and others to stage protests at the polling agency’s headquarters and places where the ballots have been kept, demanding the votes in all 400 constituencies be recounted and pressing all seven commissioners to resign due to their alleged failure to hold a clear and clean election.
All seven commissioners could possibly be faced with duty-negligence charges due to allegations of the unstopped rigging and irregularities and, if finally found guilty in court, could possibly be punished with terms in prison.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page – A Thai man dissatisfied with the performance of the Election Commission flung a bag of fermented fish sauce at the entrance of the office today, Feb. 12, 2026. Photos – Amarin TV
Insert – Residents of Khukhan district, Sisaket province, demand vote recount at Constituency 6 within three days amid discrepancy in the result with different winners declared at Election Commission’s website and that displayed on a bulletin board at the district office. Photo – Amarin TV
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