Former Prime Minister Thaksin accuses Thai election of being rigged
Thailand's former leader said the votes of the pro-military Palang Pracharat party in the general election showed many signs of irregularities.
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Former Prime Minister Thaksin gives an interview in Hong Kong on March 25. Photo:AFP. |
"Everyone in Thailand and international monitoring organizations know that there are signs of irregularities in the election. We should call it a rigged election, which is not good for Thailand,"AFPquoted former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said today in an interview in Hong Kong.
Former Prime Minister Thaksin had remained silent for months before the election, but criticized the military government after preliminary results were announced in favor of the pro-military Palang Pracharat party, represented by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
"In any race, the results will be invalid if the rules and controllers are not fair. If you look at the statistics in key provinces, you can see that the number of votes far exceeds the number of eligible voters," Mr. Thaksin said when asked about signs of irregularities.
Thailand held its first general election in eight years on March 24. With 95% of the votes counted as of the evening of the same day, the Palang Pracharat Party was leading with 7 million votes, while the largest opposition party, Pheu Thai, had 6.6 million votes. The Election Commission of Thailand said today that it would announce the results of 350 election seats later in the day, but the full vote count, which is needed to decide the remaining 150 seats in parliament, will not be announced until March 28.
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Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha casts his vote on the morning of March 24. Photo:AFP. |
Thailand has been ruled by a military government since the army ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, in a coup in 2014. A previous poll of 80,000 voters predicted that the Pheu Thai Party would win 173 of the 500 seats in the Thai parliament, followed by the Palang Pracharat Party with 96 seats.
The Pheu Thai Party was founded by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2008. In May 2011, Pheu Thai nominated Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, Mr. Thaksin's sister, as its candidate for prime minister. Ms. Yingluck won 260 out of 500 seats in the National Assembly, becoming Thailand's first female prime minister.