King Prajadhipok’s Institute launches website to provide info on Bkk elections

King Prajadhipok’s Institute, which is a leading academic institute under the Thai Parliament, on Friday held a seminar to launch its website, whose address is https://elect.in.th/bkk-election.

The seminar was attended by Prof Wutthisarn Tanchai, secretary-general of the institute, Assoc Prof Orathai Kokpol, deputy secretary-general of the institute, Asst Prof Satithorn Thananithichote, director of the Office of Innovation for Democracy under the institute, and Assoc Prof Tavida Kamolvej, dean of Thammasat University’s Faculty of Political Science.

Wutthisarn said the website would be a platform that provides non-partisan information for the people to use to make their decisions in the upcoming Bangkok elections.

He said the institute decided to set up the platform because it regards that an important democratic role is to provide information to the people, so that they can have enough data for making their political decisions.

The secretary-general said it has become clearer that a Bangkok governor election would be held this year after the previous poll was held seven years ago.

Therefore, the institute would consult other academics on how to make the platform a modern tool that can answer the people’s questions related to the gubernatorial poll.

The Bangkok governor election was suspended after the May 22, 2014 coup. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has said a new Bangkok governor election would be held no later than the middle of this year and some governor aspirants have already introduced themselves to Bangkok voters.

Satithorn said the platform was developed because Bangkokians were quite interested in the upcoming elections.

He said information for the voters is very crucial and Bangkokians need more than information from candidates to weigh their decisions.

Orathai said the platform provides information on the history of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and various statistics, including the population of the capital, budget and problems specific to Bangkok districts.

The information will be available to the public and can be used by the media, she added.

She said the upcoming elections will be very crucial for Bangkok as both the governor and councillors will be elected at the same time.