EC confirms February 8 nationwide poll despite border tensions

On Friday, December 26, Sawaeng Boonmee, secretary-general of the Election Commission (EC), said guidelines for holding elections in provinces along the Thai–Cambodian border had already been published in the Royal Gazette.

With the situation along the border still unsettled, he said the EC must prepare to ensure the general election can proceed on February 8, 2026 as a single nationwide polling day. 

While the EC and its networks were ready, he said cooperation from voters and political parties would also be required to keep the election orderly under such conditions.

Sawaeng said the EC must issue regulations in line with legal requirements, including rules on campaign signage and notifications to household heads. He said the law also allowed several approaches depending on conditions on the ground.

He outlined a three-tier zoning approach:

• White zones: Areas unaffected by the Thai–Cambodian border clashes would vote as normal.
   
• Yellow zones: Areas hosting a small number of evacuees could have polling stations relocated from their original sites, provided they remained within the same constituency and were convenient for voters to access.
   
• Red zones: If voting was genuinely impossible, Section 102 of the organic law on the election of MPs would allow polling to be postponed only for the affected polling station, similar to cases involving storms or flooding.

He said this approach would keep the election on a single day nationwide without disadvantaging other areas. However, if more than 75% of eligible voters were outside their constituencies, the EC might encourage them to register for advance voting and cast ballots on February 1, 2026.

He stressed that all measures were provided for under existing law, and the choice of approach would depend on the situation at the time.

“We will do everything as normally as the law allows. We are not changing anything unnecessarily,” he said. “If more than 75% of voters remain in the polling unit, we will proceed as usual. If the number is small, we will decide accordingly.”

He added that the EC would first assess the situation during the local elections for subdistrict administrative organisation (SAO) chiefs and council members scheduled for January 11, 2026. More than 51 SAOs had been affected by border clashes, he said, and the EC would use those polls to help gauge conditions.

On transport for voters, Sawaeng said any shuttle service would be a facilitation measure using vehicles from the EC office.

Asked about contingency planning in areas where clashes continue, he said he had consulted provincial EC directors, who were coordinating daily with local security agencies. 

He said security officials were paying close attention to the election process and wanted it to run smoothly. If voting needed to be postponed in any polling unit due to incidents, the EC could do so immediately, citing previous cases such as a by-election in Si Sa Ket.

Asked whether the EC would still keep February 8, 2026 as election day if the fighting continued, Sawaeng said the EC was maintaining that date, with postponements possible only where necessary and only for affected polling units.

He also said voters who had already registered for advance voting but later wished to change or cancel their registration could do so under existing regulations. Any changes must be made within the permitted period, with registration open from December 20, 2025 to January 5, 2026.