NAKHON SI THAMMARAT, 2 February 2014 – Nakhon Si Thammarat Province was able to organize elections and count ballots for less than 2% of all electoral districts, on Sunday.
General elections for list-MPs in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province concluded at 3:00 p.m. February 2nd, with the ballots cast being only for electoral district Members of Parliament, since the ballot cards for party list Members of Parliament could not be retrieved from the post office. Districts that were able to conduct elections without obstruction include districts 1, 5, 6, and 9, comprised of 87 election units, out of a total of 9 election districts and 2,010 election units. Districts 3 and 8 did not have any electoral district MP candidates, district 2 did not have sufficient election commission personnel, while districts 4 and 7 were unable to retrieve necessary poll equipment.
Mr. Sombut Chanthra, the Nakhon Si Thammarat Election Commission Director, said that 87 election units, accounting for about 4.35% of total election units in the province, were able to conduct voting. A number of protesters obstructed the work of election personnel throughout the day. Therefore only three election districts were able to close their ballot boxes and count votes. These include three election units in district 1, one election unit in district 6, and nineteen election units in district 9. The districts have submitted their vote-count tally to be totaled.
Mr. Sombut added that the tally won’t be announced until out-of-district voting concludes. He added that since there was only a small number of election units, the People’s Democratic Reform Committee was easily able to obstruct voting. Nonetheless, election personnel remained tolerant and carried out their duties until the end of voting.
