Voting rights plea
A group of Thais living abroad urged the Election Commission (EC) yesterday not to scrap their voting rights in the public referendum on the new constitution.
About 20 people living in the United States, led by Rithirong Prasertkul met EC chairman Apichart Sukhakkanant and urged him not to deprive Thais living overseas of their right to vote.The EC met last week and proposed to remove overseas voting on the grounds it was too costly and not many people exercised their right. Rithirong said that Thais based overseas were more aware after the political crisis last year. He said that in order to cut costs, the EC should employ Thai journalists overseas for the election campaign instead of relying on foreign media. Apichart said the King Prajadhipok's Institute had earlier come up with a study which showed that overseas voting was not worth it, because so few voters bothered exercised their right. However, he said that the EC did want to maintain overseas voting and was seeking a way to save funds by using mail and the Internet. "The problem with this method is how to check the identity of the voters," he said.
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