At least 30 NPA members demanded a re-vote and vowed to petition the Administrative Court about the electoral irregularity.

To everyone's surprise, many of the 2,000 NPA members who arrived early yesterday were apparently given ballot papers two hours before the designated time of 9.30am.

They were also allowed to move around with the ballot papers, talk freely with others, and even reveal the content of their ballot papers, a move some NPA members said compromised the selection process and enabled block-voting to occur unchecked.

"They're trying to fool the whole world. This is dictatorship," shouted NPA member Priewpong Charoenviriyapab, from the Hat Yai district in Songkhla province.

Police tried to convince Priewpong to lower his voice as ballot papers were being counted. "We have to nullify this election. This is worse than rape - and how can they claim that the people will draft the new constitution?"

Priewpong along with another NPA member, Chulalongkorn University lecturer in criminology Amorn Wanichwiwatana, collected 30 signatures among NPA members - as of yesterday - calling for a new selection round by NPA Chairman Meechai Ruchuphan, who denied the election was a sham and not transparently held.

"I don't think there was anything dishonest about the process," Meechai told reporters after the result. "The only problem was that NPA members were given a pencil, an eraser and a ballot paper beforehand and they prematurely marked the papers. It was too transparent actually, we didn't want people to see who people voted for … I don't know what to do."

Amorn said he didn't mind who won or lost but the process should be clean and just. "The cheating starts from the very beginning, however," he said.

Even winners like human rights advocate Angkhana Neelapaijit, who was elected with 11 votes, was appalled. "Some collected other members' ballot papers and helped mark it for them. This is not transparent at all. I don't know if society will accept it. I don't want to join [the process] any longer if it continues this way."

"It's a disgrace," said Paisal Leesen, an NPA member from Satun province, who claimed he also saw an NPA member marking three or four ballot papers for others. "I have never seen anything like this. Even the tambon administrative election is better handled than this."

Bangkok NPA member Yuttaporn Issarachai said people who tried to speak and have the process adjusted yesterday, so that all the members could get a chance to know one another before voting took place, were ignored by Meechai.

"One member raised his hand and while still speaking, his microphone was cut off by the chairman," said Yuttaporn, adding that "the constitution drafting process is clearly failing from the very beginning".

The group of disillusioned NPA members looked scattered and disorganised as most didn't have the time or opportunity to discuss the matter as the voting took place only a day after the NPA officially assembled yesterday.

Meanwhile, the coup leaders will screen 100 out of the list of 2,000 nominees within seven days, as the renegade NPA members try to force a new election.

Bangkok NPA member Jaroen Compeerapab, a vice rector of Silpakorn University, said even with the best of intentions, the process is doomed to fail because people with vested interests are being selected as NPA members.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation