<p>Thailand&rsquo;s 2019 general election took place yesterday (24 March), and the Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) did not seem to do any better on election day than it did with overseas and advance voting which were plagued with difficulties</p>

<p>Early voting for the 2019 general election took place on Sunday&nbsp;(17 March), with the highest early voter turnout rate ever. However, the Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) seemed unprepared. Early voters faced a long list of obstacles, including no lists of candidates, long waiting times and being given ballot papers for the wrong constituency. &nbsp;</p>

<p>Overseas voting for the upcoming 2019 general election began on 4 March and will continue until 16 March. However, many Thai voters living overseas are facing difficulties casting their votes in UK, US, China, Malaysia, Canada, South Africa, Russia, and Japan, from long waiting times at the poll to ballots not arriving in the mail.</p>

<p>On 7 March 2019, the Constitutional Court of Thailand ruled to dissolve the Thai Raksa Chart Party (TRC), claiming that the TRC&rsquo;s nomination of former princess Ubolratana Mahidol as their candidate for Prime Minister was in opposition to the constitutional monarchy. To many, the verdict was not entirely unexpected. Nevertheless, the court&rsquo;s ruling is another in a series of political earthquakes which have shaken Thailand in the period leading up to the general election on 24 March 2019, triggering a chain of reaction from the moment the verdict was delivered.</p>

<p>Prayut Chan-o-cha is losing the Thai pop culture war as the election date approaches. Anti-junta&nbsp;groups are not convinced by the junta leader&rsquo;s choices of song, food, dress, musical instruments and his social media strategy as a whole, while other political parties have already moved on to serious campaign debates. Still, he has the upper hand because of the constitution written for him.</p>

<p>A distraction from Thai politics last&nbsp;week has been the incident at Wat Sing School. The intrusion into the school outraged many and ignites a debate&nbsp;about how Buddhism should be practised.</p>

<p>On 14 February 2019, the Constitutional Court of Thailand accepted the request of Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) to rule on the dissolution of the Thai Raksa Chart (TRC) Party. In other words, 9 judges will decide the fate of the 2019 Thai general election.</p>