Provinces given 10 days to draw constituency boundaries for general election
The Election Commission (EC) on Friday instructed its provincial offices across the country to designate their constituency boundaries within 10 days.
The move comes after the revised electoral law was enacted with royal endorsement.
The number of constituencies at the next general election, tentatively scheduled for May 7, will rise from 350 to 400.
In provinces with more than one constituency, the provincial electoral director must prepare at least three options for new boundaries, the EC said in its statement on Friday. The options must cover an unbroken area and contain a similar number of residents.
The proposed constituency boundaries will be put to a public hearing of local residents and political parties, with provincial electoral officials announcing the chosen options within 10 days.
Each constituency proposal must name the districts and sub-districts included, the number of residents, and how that population compares with the average number of residents per member of Parliament. Each of the 400 constituencies should deviate no more than 10% from the average of 165,226 residents, based on Thailand’s population of 66,090,475 as of December 31, 2022. Exceptions will be made in cases where adjacent communities must be included in the same constituency to facilitate voters.
Provincial electoral authorities must announce details of the final constituency boundaries at their local offices, as well as the Provincial Hall, City Hall, district offices, and local administrative offices.
This also applies to provinces where constituency boundaries remain unchanged from the 2019 election and provinces with only one constituency.
