As crowds of voters flocked to polling stations across the country on Sunday (7 May) to vote early or outside of their home province, they faced many issues, from names missing from the registered list and wrong constituency on the ballot envelope to missing candidate profiles.

Early voters checking candidate numbers and poll locations at the polling stations at Banglamung School, Pattaya.

The legal watchdog NGO iLaw, now running an election watch network, reported that officials at several polling stations wrote the wrong constituency or province code on ballot envelopes. In Bangkok, at Bang Khen District Office, a voter found that the constituency number written on the envelope she was given was wrong. Instead of Nakhon Sawan’s 2nd constituency, an official had written down that the envelope was for Nakhon Sawan’s 9th constituency, even though there are only 6 constituencies in the province.

When she complained, an official insisted that the details were correct. She then called a friend who is an election watch volunteer, who told her the official was wrong, and sent her the Election Commission’s regulation, which she used to argue with the official, who told her that the polling station she was voting at is the 9th constituency and that every envelope would say the same.

Another official also attempted to explain that the detail on the envelope was correct, and took her ID card to check which constituency she was voting in, before finding that she should be voting in Nakhon Sawan’s 2nd constituency. The officials then realized that they had written the wrong number on the envelope and gave her a new envelope for her ballot. They also said that they would correct the other envelopes already in the ballot box after the poll closed.

A similar scenario also took place at a polling station at the Bangkok Youth Centre (Thai-Japan) at Din Daeng, and in other provinces, including Chonburi and Nakhon Ratchasima. Meanwhile, in Chiang Mai and Nonthaburi, polling officials wrote postcodes on ballot envelopes instead of constituency codes.

In Huai Kwang, polling officials wrote down province names and constituency numbers on the ballot envelope, but not the constituency codes. After a voter complained, the officials said they would fix the mistakes after the poll closed.

A polling station at Bangkhen District Office

iLaw also reported other issues during early voting. A voter in Nonthaburi said that his name was missing from the list of registered voters, despite having already registered to vote early online. He had also printed out a QR Code from the website, which, when scanned at the polling station, shows that he had cancelled his registration, meaning that he could not vote early and must go to his home province on 14 May to vote. The voter insisted he had not cancelled his registration, and said that polling officials made a record of what happened but said there was nothing they could do since he was not on the list.

Other voters in several provinces, including Samut Sakhon, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, and Bangkok, also found their names missing from the list. In Chiang Rai, a voter from Trang said their name was not on the list of early voters despite having already registered, and that they would not be able to go home for the election and will miss out on voting.

Journalist and TV presenter Sorayuth Suthassanachinda also reported that at the polling station in Bangkok’s Din Daeng district, polling officials wrote down the wrong constituency number on 380 out of 481 envelopes containing ballots for Surin’s 2nd constituency. After a voter complained, the Din Daeng District Director said that polling officials might have made a mistake, and after the poll closed, the ballot box was opened in front of voters to check for mistakes. The envelopes were then corrected.

There was also confusion over how ballot envelopes were supposed to be sealed. In some polling stations, officers did not sign their names across the envelope seal, or did not sign at all.

Early voters waiting to vote at the polling station at Bangkhen District Office

Candidate profiles have also gone missing from display boards at polling stations in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Chiang Mai, and Nakhon Ratchasima, where pieces of paper containing the photos and profiles of candidates from the Move Forward Party were missing. Meanwhile, voters at a polling station in Kalasin said candidates’ profiles were arranged in a confusing manner.

Apichat Jasaen, a Move Forward Party MP candidate for Nan’s 2nd constituency, said his profile was missing from several polling stations. A voter who was voting early in Bangkok also told him that she was told by a polling official that he had been disqualified and if she voted for him, her ballot would become invalid. Apichat insisted that he has been certified by the Election Commission and has never been disqualified.

The election observer network We Watch also said that several polling stations did not display documents stating the number of ballots as required, which raised concerns that the number of ballots would not match the number of voters who turned up to vote at that polling station. We Watch volunteers also said that at some polling stations, there were more voters than ballots given to those stations.

Voters checking candidate numbers at a polling station on Sunday

Election watch volunteers in several provinces were also prevented from observing the early voting process. At a polling station in Bangkok, polling officials forced observers to leave the poll even though they were taking pictures from outside the cordon and did not show anyone’s personal information.

At Bangkok’s Thawi Watthana District, observers were not allowed to take photos of the voting process, while in Udon Thani, volunteers said officials were not cooperating and tried to stop them from going inside the auditorium where voting was taking place. In Chiang Mai, volunteers were prohibited from taking pictures even though they were outside the polling station.

At a polling station in Lampang, volunteers for We Watch said polling officials initially tried to stop them from going inside the polling station, but allowed them to do so after they said they were from We Watch.

The election watch network Vote62 also said that they received a total of 547 complaints from 58 provinces, 166 of which were related to polling officials writing the wrong detail onto the ballot envelope and 64 were to do with missing candidate and party profiles. 240 of the complaints were from incidents at polling stations in Bangkok.

On Sunday night, the hashtag #กกตมีไว้ทำไม (“What is the Election Commission for?”) trended on Twitter with over 529,000 tweets as netizens complained about issues during early voting day, some even saying that Election Commissioners should be jailed for the mistakes.

Meanwhile, Move Forward Party Secretary-General Chaitawat Tulaton said that the mistakes that happened during early voting were suspicious, noting that the Election Commission has been given a budget of 5.9 billion baht for the election. He also said that several reported mistakes raised the question of whether it is targeted harassment, especially with missing candidate profiles, most of which were those of Move Forward candidates.

Chaitawat demanded that the Election Commission take responsibility and explain what they would do with ballots that might become invalid due to these issues. He also said that the Party will sue the Election Commission if similar mistakes happen on election day.

Jirapong Songwatcharaporn, a Pheu Thai Party MP candidate for Nonthaburi’s 2nd constituency, also said that in Nonthaburi, polling officials wrote the wrong constituency number and codes on over 100 ballot envelopes. The ballot box was then opened so the envelopes could be sorted, all of which was recorded on video, and the responsible officials would be investigated. Jirapong said he is concerned about the mistakes, but said he believes voters will keep an eye on the voting process so that there are as few mistakes as possible.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said that over 90% of people who registered to vote early turned up to vote on Sunday. 4,959 people were voting early in their own constituency, 744,687 people voted early outside of their constituency, and 208 people voted at polling stations for the elderly and people with disabilities.

Early voting ballots will now be sent to the constituencies, and in Bangkok’s 33 constituencies, the rooms where they are kept will be monitored at all times via CCTV cameras, which the public can view on a website set up by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.

Sawaeng Boonmee, Secretary-General of the Election Commission, said this morning while reporters were observing the process of sorting early voting ballots at the Lak Si Post Office that 2,014,903 people voted early outside of their constituency across the country, while 57,362 voted early in their constituency.

He said that the process of sorting ballots to be delivered to their constituencies is monitored via CCTV cameras, and the Thailand Post trucks delivering them will be escorted by a police car. During the sorting process, the number of ballots will be checked against the number of ballot stubs reported to the Election Commission to make sure that there were no extra ballots and that none had gone missing.

An Election Commission official is also present at the Post Office to sort out issues with ballots where details on the envelopes might be missing or wrong. He also promised that no such mistakes would happen on election day on 14 May.