Official reasons vs real reasons for lack of election results
Re: “A writer from America seeks news of Thai democracy”, Have Your Say, April 18.
Mitchell Stein of Los Angeles asks why the election results are still not known more than three weeks after we voted (now more than a month). There are two possible answers to this question.
One is the Election Commission’s (EC) official explanation that it is confused about the calculation of party-list MPs and therefore has to seek a Constitutional Court ruling. The Constitutional Court is also “confused” about the issue.
The other, unofficial, reason is that the ruling military junta is looking for a way to hold on to power. Thailand has never had genuine democracy and elected governments have always been deposed by military coups. Meanwhile, the Future Forward Party has been hit with several legal cases because it took an open stand against the military’s role in politics.
For an understanding of Thai politics, one can always go to the UCLA Asian Studies Institute for information.
The Insider
