Election agency inspectors to replace EC’s provincial panel
THE CONTENTIOUS election inspectors proposed to replace the Election Commission’s (EC) provincial committee will remain in the new organic election law, chief drafter Meechai Ruchupan said.
Meechai said the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) had constantly discussed the issue with the EC and the agency now agreed that the election inspectors would replace the provincial committee after the law was promulgated.
The chief drafter said the EC merely expressed concerns about possible difficulties that could occur as a result of introducing the inspectors.
The CDC would lay out measures accordingly to counter possible issues and give the EC the necessary power to deal with those issues, he added.
The EC had insisted on preserving its provincial committee, citing the committees’ familiarity with the constituencies and |the tasks that must be undertaken.
However, the drafters remained firm that the committee would be scrapped because of possible political influence on it.
They said the proposed inspectors were not natives to the constituencies and thus should be more independent and carry out their tasks better.
