10 Democrat teams to check on poll cheating

The Democrat Party has formed 10 fast moving teams to observe and deter cheating in the Bangkok governor's election on Sunday.

Ong-art Klampaibul, the Democrat election director, said the mobile teams would be deployed to various zones, including northern Bangkok, eastern Bangkok, northern Thon Buri, and southern Bangkok to observer the ballot.

The units will coordinate with Democrat volunteers, who will be deployed to 6,000 polling stations. If alerted to alleged irregularities at any station, the unit, which is closest to the station, will move there immediately, Ong-art said.

Each team will include voluntary lawyers and security officials and team members will carry mobile phones for recording video.

The mobile units will start working in the morning on Sunday until the ballot counting is done.

In another development, independent candidate Sumet Tanthanasirikul yesterday protested against the Bangkok Election Committee's alleged failure to keep the election clean and fair. Sumet presented a mirror to the committee's chairman Thaweessak Tuchinda for him to take a look at himself.

Sumet alleged that Thaweesak failed to stop pollsters from conducting and announcing opinion surveys to help certain candidates and alleged that he failed to allocate fair media coverage to all candidates.

Also yesterday, independent candidate Sukhum Wongprasit demanded the Bangkok Election Committee speed up action against the Bangkok city clerk for non-feasance [inaction that allows or results in harm to a person or property].

Sukhum said the city clerk allowed him to campaign in the Lumpini Park on February 17 - but failed to inform the district office, prompting security officials to prevent him from campaigning there.