Activists and academics in Chiang Mai gathered in front of the Chiang Mai Election Commission Office this morning (14 June) to demand that the Election Commission (EC) urgently certify the results of the 14 May general election.

Activists and academics gathered in front of the Chiang Mai Election Commission Office. When put together, the signs behind them read "Election fraud?" and "The EC must go to jail."

The group filed two open letters to the EC. One is a letter from voters criticizing the EC’s mismanagement of the 2023 general election and the outdated method in which the EC organized the election, from how the ballots are stored and transported to how votes are counted.

The letter noted that the EC has previously been criticized for gerrymandering, mishandling early voting, and giving constituency candidates different numbers from their parties, which caused confusion for voters. It also noted that the EC was given a budget of 300 million baht to train polling officials, but many officials were making mistakes during the election as if they had never been trained at all.

Due to the lack of trust in the EC, said the letter, many volunteers turned up to observe the voting process. However, the EC continues to delay certifying the results and has allowed several weeks to pass before announcing that it will recount the ballots from 47 polling stations. There are also over 3 million invalid ballots, with many reported to have been declared invalid over minor details such as a drop of ink next to the lines.

The letter asked why the same set of election commissioners took 14 days to start certifying the election results in 2019, but has not certified any results of the 2023 general election after a month has passed. It also called them out for being appointed by coup leaders, warning them that they should try to do their job properly and stop trying to sabotage candidates who won the majority vote, since their salaries have been paid by taxpayers’ money.

Some of the activists conducted a poll on whether the EC should certify election results and release information about invalid ballots.

The group also filed another open letter from a network of academics, calling for the EC to certify the election results to show that it is working effectively and transparently. Since there is no major issue, the letter said, the EC should speed up the process and certify the results, since any further delay will be seen as an attempt to stall for time so that election results can be tampered with, which would create uncertainty about political change in Thailand.