#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40024878

Including stateless ‘Thais’ in calculating electoral boundaries a new glitch for EC

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2023

The Election Commission (EC) met on Monday to discuss the possibility of its new electoral boundaries being annulled by the Constitutional Court.

Concerns were sparked when the EC announced that it had based its electoral boundaries on the population census released by the Provincial Administration Department on December 31.

This census includes stateless people, who are considered “Thai” but do not have many legal rights and certainly not the right to vote.

The election watchdog was set to meet again on Tuesday, the day activist Srisuwan Janya plans to lodge a complaint with the Constitutional Court on the subject.

A source from the EC Office said many commissioners were worried that the election would hit technical problems if the court finds the drawing of new electoral boundaries unconstitutional.

The EC had announced earlier that it based the distribution of 400 House seats to 77 provinces on the population census as of December 31. The commission also insisted that the same method was used in previous elections as well.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, the government’s legal expert, had said earlier that stateless people cannot be included in the population census when distributing House seats. He pointed out that stateless people cannot vote after all.

Similar opinions were aired by Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, a former EC commissioner, who warned that the election watchdog would be held responsible if the court later rules that the counting of stateless people was unconstitutional.

The general election is tentatively scheduled to be held on May 7.