UNIQUE VOTE-BUYING FRAUD

General News - Wednesday December 19, 2007

POLL PULSE

UNIQUE VOTE-BUYING FRAUD

Chanthaburi rivals dumping money in an unusual way to raise the stakes and up their victory chances

Story by SURASAK TUMCHAROEN

In some localities of Chanthaburi there are canvassers who have found an unusual way of boosting the election chances of certain candidates in the province.

Some people have been hired to operate as their brokers, offering odds and tempting others to bet on the outcome of Sunday's polls, with cash prizes to be handed out to all those betting correctly.

It remains to be seen how or if the Election Commission's provincial branch could possibly stop such an activity.

Though officials of the polling agency's provincial branch may have got wind of the illegal betting scheme, launched in many remote districts of the eastern province, nothing has been done so far to bring a stop to it. Nor have any complaints been filed.

The closer the race to parliament gets, the more money election rivals are said to be dumping in such betting pools to raise the stakes and up their victory chances.

The "prizes" for the winning bettors, said to be coming from the wallets of poll candidates, will be handed out "secretly" a day or two after the end of the vote counting.

According to an official of the polling agency's provincial branch, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the poll-betting brokers have quietly, yet rapidly, penetrated villages throughout Khaeng Hang Maew, Soi Dao, Pong Nam Ron and Makham districts, among others. Some are familiar faces to the local people, while others are said to be village- or tambon-level big shots.

The prizes are arranged by canvassers and have already been delivered to brokers who will not pay until after the election results are announced. And only if the candidate they are backing emerges the winner by a certain margin of votes.

A village head in Pong Nam Ron district says a number of local villagers had taken the odds on Candidate A gaining more votes than those of Candidate B and Candidate C combined. The gamblers will get nothing if Candidate A fails to get that many votes, even if that person gets elected.

But bettors in the remote village of Soi Dao district say in previous elections they had voted for Candidate D simply because he was popular with his constituents, although he wasn't always successful. They believe most of their relatives and neighbours will again vote for the veteran MP, no matter how much money they stood to win if they back some other candidate in Sunday's poll.

A member of the tambon administration organisation in Makham district says his villagers have bet on Candidate A winning twice as many votes as Candidate B. Each winning bettor stands to win 500 to 1,000 baht from the brokers.

The number of bettors among rural villagers is increasing by the day as the race for the MP seats is now in its final leg. Unlike other kinds of gambling, where people either win or lose some money, the poll bettors will not lose a penny.

"This type of betting is too tempting as the rural poor have nothing to risk. The only thing that counts is whether they are going to gain some money or not in return for placing a bet and, of course, voting for a particular candidate," says the embarrassed village headman, who charged that some of his counterparts in other villages were secretly acting as poll-betting brokers, but refused to name names.

Officials at the tambon, municipal and provincial levels are also suspected of having a role in it.

To assure themselves of a win, the bettors are expected to pick just one candidate, not all the three that could get elected.

The official says his provincial polling agency is badly understaffed while many villages are so remote that the rural people remain under the tight control of their local leaders, many of whom are suspected of involvement in the betting game, which is nothing but a vote-buying conspiracy.

Those found guilty of involvement in poll-related gambling are legally liable to a maximum five-year jail term or a maximum fine of 200,000 baht, or both. Several contestants have accused one another of involvement in the betting racket and urged the polling agency to act promptly to stop it. Yet, they have stopped short of going into detail or offered any substantial evidence backing the accusations, says the official.

Nevertheless, poll betting will make it harder for both the canvassers and candidates to get caught for vote-buying. This way they don't need to indiscriminately give away money to buy votes. It also guarantees that the prize money provider will not lose so much money as he usually does when directly buying votes, although he may as well fail to make his candidate an MP.

Unlike usual vote-buying scams in which the vote-buying money must be delivered to eligible voters just before the casting of ballots, the betting game will see the prize money handed to them only after the votes have been cast.

Millions of baht in prize money is said to be up for grabs among the bettors in those remote districts of Chanthaburi where the average resident earns an annual income of about 62,000 baht. Many are employed in durian and mangosteen orchards or the gem-cutting industry.

Seeking re-election in the three-MP province are ex-MP Thawatchai Anamphong, ex-senator Yukon Chanawatpanya and ex-MP Phongvej Vejjajiva of the Democrat Party, ex-MP Phayung Trongsawat of the Matchimathipataya party, ex-senator Praphan Jungsakulwatana of the Pracharaj party and ex-MP Prawat Uttamot of the People Power party.

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