Vote buying prevails in central provinces

Today's General News - Wednesday December 12, 2007

RACE TO PARLIAMENT

Vote buying prevails in central provinces

SURASAK GLAHAN

Despite being a key issue in a government campaign, vote buying prevails in Ratchaburi, Samut Sakhon and Kanchanaburi due to lack of resources and timely execution by poll officials.

Having received many complaints about vote buying, director of the Ratchaburi election office, Manoch Wajabandit, assigned district chiefs and police officers to investigate the problem.

However, he admitted that they failed to trace any evidence of wrongdoing simply because it was too late. ''We don't have enough poll officers to counter vote buying in a more pro-active manner,'' said Mr Manoch.

A government-appointed committee led by Deputy Prime Minister Sonthi Boonyaratkalin has vowed to end fraud, including vote buying.

But in Ratchaburi, a budget for vote-buying suppression was allocated by the Election Commission office in Bangkok for him to set up an investigation team only two weeks before the polls take place on Dec 23, Mr Manoch said.

There are also no incentives for local authorities to handle the task since their contributions will not be rewarded in their performance evaluation, he added.

It would be better to have investigators embedded in certain areas, but this needs additional budget and the arrangements need to made earlier, he said.

The Kanchanaburi poll office has about 40 officials, less than 10 of them poll officers while the rest are police.

But the situation is the same as in its neighbouring province of Ratchaburi as training also just began two weeks before the poll date, according to chief of the provincial poll officers Kitti Jaorungrit.

In Samut Sakhon, a team investigating the issue comprised only four election officials and 18 members of the police, the provincial attorney-general's office and local administration.

Vote buying had not been eliminated from the province, especially in Muang district, because his team did not have enough resources and capacity to crack down on it, said a senior poll official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The three officials said local authorities had to wait for an order by election commissioners for them to set up an inquiry team.

Democrat Preechaya Khamcharoen, a contender for constituency 2 in Ratchaburi, said provincial poll authorities had never been effective in countering vote buying. In past years, there had been many complaints submitted there but no action had been taken, she said.

Two-time Thai Rak Thai MP Boonlue Prasertsopha, People Power party candidate for Ratchaburi's constituency 1, said his political supporters in certain areas had been unfairly threatened by a group of men he believed were plainclothes police officers driving cars with no number plates. His supporters were told to stop campaigning for the party.

''They are just people faithful to the party, not vote-buying canvassers. I have never done anything illegal,'' he said.

In Ratchaburi, two village men said people in different villages received unequal amounts of money from vote buyers, ranging from 50 to 500 baht per head. This depended on a canvasser's capacity to garner votes in the particular village, they said.

Bangkok Post