Three things that needn't worry the Election Commission

The campaigning was much quieter, there were far fewer candidate billboards clogging the roads and there were no big party rallies offering a glimpse of Yingluck Shinawatra in the flesh. The anti-government protesters did their best to keep things noisy, but we really had to wait for Election Day itself for things to get properly weird.
That Rak Prathet Thai Party mainstay Chuwit Kamolvisit, the celebrated “stuntman” of national politics, maintained a stoic silence throughout the campaign but inadvertently reassumed control of the headlines on Election Day by being allegedly “assaulted” by one of the protesters while walking to his polling station.
The photos and video of the purported attack made the rounds on the social media and were heavily scrutinised for signs of fraud. Some viewers said it looked more like a street fight, but a lot concluded it was staged. Poor Chuwit: he can’t even get into a fight without being suspected of fakery.
He rose to his own defence once more, posting a photo on Facebook showing him in classic wrestling smackdown mode with his attacker and captioning it “Attacked or staged?” He said he didn’t want to press “unnecessary” charges. “Those disrupting the poll stations, firing guns and throwing bombs haven’t been arrested, so why go to the police over a small fight?” Nor is he angry with people suggesting the fight was a put-on, he said.
Later his son also went online to condemn the attacker, but people quickly noticed that it was the son who was taking pictures – rather than going to the old man’s rescue.
Later that same day, Enami Daijiro became a star. The reporter for Japan’s Fuji TV was just doing his job, covering the balloting (in a helmet and flak jacket), when someone took a picture of his stern but undeniably handsome face and posted it online. Soon everyone was taking his picture and the term “hunk reporter” was trending on Twitter.
Daijiro did his best to ignore the rising Enamimania as voters kept standing next to him for a photo. He declined a request for an interview. It didn’t matter. The man was suddenly a god. Pity the Thai newscaster whose picture was posted next to that of Daijiro for comparison purposes, evoking a lot of embarrassing laughter.
Election Day had to spare some headlines for Caretaker PM Yingluck, of course, but she would have preferred to dodge the ones about her dropping her inscribed ballot into the wrong box. The photo of her blunder went round and round the Internet, then on TV and into print, and prompted discussion about whether her vote would still be legal.
Yingluck said she was only following orders – not her brother’s this time but those of the election official who was standing next to her. Doesn’t matter: It was a godsend for editorial cartoonists, as Stephff of The Nation makes clear on today’s Opinion page.
Readers will kindly notice that the “hottest news” from Election Day wasn’t the outcome or even electoral fraud or violence, but rather the odd and the amusing. The Japanese hunk never did make it into the mainstream media, but Chuwit’s bout was on Channel 3 and in the papers, and Yingluck’s flub got coverage from here to Timbuktu.