Chadchart Sittipunt was certified today as Bangkok’s next governor, ending concern that his landslide victory would be overturned on a technicality.
On May 31, 2022, at around 3 pm, Ittiporn Boonprakong, chairman of the Election Commission, through the online system of Zoom meeting, announced that had confirmed 56-year-old former transport minister Chadchart would become the capital’s 17th governor with a total of 1,386,215 votes.
The Election Commission has been under scrutiny since yesterday when it failed to deliver a routine certification of Chadchart’s historic win in the first gubernatorial election in nine years. #WTFiswrongwithEC was spreading Tuesday on Thai Twitter. The Commission told the meeting that the election could be seen as dishonest and unfair given the above complaints against Mr Chatchart.
Until this afternoon, clouds had been gathering over the likelihood the Commission would block Chadchart from becoming governor despite the centrist candidate winning massive support from the electorate. The Commission said it had to review complaints filed by serial petitioner Srisuwan Janya claiming Chadchart had violated election law and “insulted” the government by criticizing the entrenched bureaucracy.
The Commission also stated that the election results could not be announced immediately after the votes were counted. The election had to be subject to a “preliminary review” under Article 17 of the B.E.
Until about 3 pm, the committee officially announced the election results by Article 17 of the Local Council Member Election Law; Mr Chatchart Sitthiphan and 5 members of the Bangkok City Council were legally elected.
Source:
Prachachat
Coconut Bangkok