Provincial organisation elections to be held nationwide on Dec 20
Election of chief executives and members of the Provincial Administrative Organisation (PAO) nationwide would be held on Sunday December 20, the Election Commission (EC) announced on Monday.
The EC also announced that on October 26, it would officially announce the schedules and locations of PAO elections nationwide, while candidate applications would be received from November 2-6.
The Cabinet’s previous approval of PAO elections for 380 posts is the first step in restoring voters’ control over almost 100,000 posts that were suspended six years ago after the coup in 2014.
In the absence of local elections, tenures of PAO posts expired in 2018 and left 98,940 local politicians and administrators frozen in place.
The size of PAOs will be limited to 24 members per 500,000 residents -- 30 per 1 million residents, 36 per 1.5 million residents, 42 per 2 million residents and 48 if the number of provincial residents exceeds 2 million.
Nakhon Ratchasima’s PAO will be the largest with 48 members, followed by Khon Kaen, Chonburi, Chiang Mai, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Buriram, Udon Thani and Ubon Ratchathani provinces at 42.