People's Party says EC lawsuits risk silencing scrutiny

On February 28, 2026, the People’s Party posted an image with a message on the party’s Facebook page stating that the EC should answer people’s questions by providing clarification and facilitating scrutiny, not by responding to citizens and the media through legal action with allegations that are disproportionate and risk being seen as a gag lawsuit.

The general election on February 8 was an election management process filled with doubts and criticism from the public about efficiency and transparency—

• whether it was the problem of reporting election results via the EC’s website being delayed;
• the discovery of vote-tally sheets (MP 5/11) in an area resembling a rubbish pile;
• polling-unit count results in some units not matching between the tally sheets (MP 5/11) and the count report (MP 5/18);
• certifying constituency MP results before announcing 100% of the vote count or disclosing the number of voters who cast ballots;
• recounts in some units that led to significantly changed scores;
• and the design of ballot papers to include barcodes indicating a ballot code, enabling traceability back to who cast the vote.

But over the past 1–2 weeks, instead of the EC choosing a method of communicating and clarifying to the public and the media—who have consistently raised observations—in a format that allows questions and answers in order to dispel doubts, the EC has chosen one-way communication through written statements that cannot ease doubts on many points.

Most recently, last night (February 27), the EC issued a statement confirming media reports that the EC had filed a complaint with the Crime Suppression Division to prosecute members of the public who had scrutinised the EC regarding ballot papers.

This includes the incident on February 22, when there was a re-election at Polling Unit 9, Constituency 15, Bangkok.

The names reported to have been complained against are expected to include academics, civil society, journalists, and Parit Wacharasindhu, spokesperson for the People’s Party.

Regarding the filing of complaints to prosecute citizens and the media, the People’s Party expresses strong disagreement with the EC’s decision as follows:

• If citizens raise questions and scrutinise the operation of a state agency in good faith, the state agency should clarify and help citizens understand, make everything transparent, and facilitate citizens’ scrutiny.

• But the EC has instead chosen to prosecute using allegations that appear inconsistent and disproportionate to the facts visible to the public, which may be viewed as falling under a “gag lawsuit” (SLAPP: Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation). This does not have the primary intention of proving whether wrongdoing occurred as alleged, but has the primary intention of increasing the burden of time and costs on the accused, including intimidating or creating an environment of fear, in order to block and halt scrutiny.
• The freedom of citizens and the media to scrutinise the exercise of state power is a fundamental freedom in a democratic system, important to protecting the public interest, and is a freedom that must be protected—not eroded and undermined—by state agencies themselves.

Regarding the complaint to prosecute Parit Wacharasindhu, spokesperson for the People’s Party, Parit travelled to the report-receiving centre at the Central Investigation Bureau yesterday (February 27) to affirm his good faith, and called on the EC to clearly communicate what allegation it has filed against him and what facts. Parit said in an interview that he is confident he did not do anything against the law.

• On the facts, Parit said he travelled to observe the vote counting at the unit where a re-election was held on February 22. The counting process is a process that must be done openly before the public and transparently anyway. He affirmed that he did not do anything that obstructed the EC’s duties, and no EC official present at the incident came to warn him or express a view suggesting he was doing anything against the law.
• The People’s Party legal team confirmed that if the facts in the EC’s complaint involve making a false report that causes damage to citizens, or making a report despite knowing that no legal offence was committed, the party will take legal action against the EC going forward.

Amid doubts and mistrust among the public about the EC’s election management, the People’s Party believes that if the EC wants to restore public confidence in the EC’s performance, what the EC should do must not be to protect itself through prosecuting citizens and the media who are carrying out scrutiny, but to protect itself by making everything transparent, verifiable, and free of doubts.