Members of the Asian Network for Free Elections submit a complaint to the United Nations office in Bangkok over the Election Commission’s controversial configuration of polling booths for Sunday’s general election.

"The election commissioners don't listen to the people," said Somsri Harn-ananthasuk, coordinator of the Bangkok-based voluntary election observer group, which submitted the letter at the UN office in Bangkok.

The polling booths were placed in such a manner that election officers and canvassers were able to see how each citizen voted. This allowed room for coercion of voters, especially the urban and rural poor, Somsri told The Nation.

In its complaint to Louise Arbor, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Anfrel alleged the EC had violated Article 21 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to vote in privacy, and Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Somsri said a response from Geneva was expected within 48 hours.  The EC needed to implement reforms to ensure its impartiality, she said.

"The EC is singing the same tune as [the Thai Rak Thai Party]," she alleged. "Actually, it made the same violation during the Phichit provincial by-election last year. We didn't know that the EC would introduce the same policy throughout the country this time."

Somsri said she was appalled by the EC's claim that nobody protested about the polling booths in the election last November because Anfrel had submitted a letter of protest to the EC.

"It's clear now that the four election commissioners lack common sense," she said. "It's like a total disruption of the election. Don't you feel shocked?"

Somsri said Anfrel did not send out election observers this time because it was not even certain the election would be held and the political situation was too volatile. "By sending [observers] we might have ended up becoming a tool to endorse someone," she said.

The Anfrel coordinator said the high percentage of "no vote" ballots cast in Bangkok and the South in Sunday's election was a first in Asia's history and amounted to a referendum on Thaksin Shinawatra's legitimacy.

Somsri said it was not Anfrel's job to suggest what Thaksin should do, but the election and the election result so far did not bode well for Thai politics, which has been in a crisis since early this year.

"The [electoral] signs are not good," she said.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation