The director of the Phichit Election Commission revealed that the suspicious case of nearly 30,000 mismatched ballots in Phichit, which led to demands for investigation and a recount, was caused by officials placing vote counts in the wrong columns.
At 3:00 p.m. on 9 Feb 2026 GMT+7, at the Phichit Election Commission office, Mr. Krai Rin Thangthong, candidate for Phichit MP in district 1 from the People’s Party, along with his team, submitted a letter to Mr. Amorn Ratchatankun, director of the Phichit Election Commission, requesting an investigation and recount regarding posted vote tallies in election district 1 near the Mueang Phichit district office. The total number of voters did not match the raw vote count, showing a discrepancy of 29,345 ballots. Images were circulated on social media, prompting calls for verification and a recount.
The director of the Phichit Election Commission received the complaint letter and expressed readiness to investigate, informing Mr. Krai Rin Thangthong and his team that the error was due to officials posting vote counts incorrectly, and confirmed that a fact-finding inquiry would follow.
In the election results for Phichit province MP in district 1, Mr. Pattharaphong Pattharaprasit from the Bhumjaithai Party received 53,148 votes, defeating Mr. Krai Rin Thangthong from the People’s Party, who received 23,172 votes.
Mr. Amorn Ratchatankun, director of the Phichit Election Commission, told reporters that the social media reports about vote totals in district 1 not matching raw counts, with a discrepancy of 29,345 ballots, initially were found to be caused by misposting of vote tallies in the Mueang Phichit district. Officials mistakenly duplicated the total votes for candidates numbered 1 to 8 in the district vote columns, resulting in inflated and duplicated totals when summed.
The accurate vote numbers for all eight candidates totaled 91,069 valid ballots. Including 5,084 spoiled ballots and 4,677 ballots with no candidate selected, the true total turnout was 100,830 voters. The discrepancy was solely a technical error in posting the results on the announcement board. The commission has since reviewed and corrected the figures accordingly.