Kittichai, People's Party MP, criticized the Election Commission (EC) for failing election management, wasting budget, and repeating old problems. He proposed continuous annual training for poll workers, hoping the upcoming Bangkok governor and Pattaya mayor elections will be error-free.
21 May 2026 GMT+7 Kittichai Techakulwanit, a party-list Member of Parliament (MP) and Deputy Head of the Local Administration Affairs of the People's Party, debated on acknowledging the auditor's report and financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2024, as well as the evaluation report on budget and asset expenditure for fiscal year 2024 of the Office of the Election Commission. He said that from the reports by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) and observations by the auditor, it is clear that the EC, which has the important duty of organizing elections, has yet to manage elections according to its stated vision that “The EC is internationally recognized as a professional election organization.” Reviewing the auditor's financial report today, the EC spent over 2.4 billion baht in 2024 to organize quality Senate elections, but the auditor noted that “there was a relatively large amount of unspent funds.”
While no one would disagree with the EC’s efficient use of taxpayers’ money to conduct quality Senate elections, doubts remain about whether the EC managed the 2024 Senate elections fairly and honestly. I thus raise two points regarding the EC’s budget use and election quality management for the explanation.
First, regarding the budget for controlling and managing House of Representatives (HoR) elections: I understand there was no nationwide HoR election in 2024, only some by-elections. How can the EC ensure election quality if it does not prioritize investing budget in training poll workers (PON)? Regardless of whether elections occur, the EC must plan to be ready for all scenarios, especially in selecting, training, and developing poll workers to be prepared. It is not acceptable to only train them a few days before an election, which repeatedly causes problems such as inconsistent ballot validation and scoring standards dependent on the discretion of each PON.
Examples from past HoR elections include complaints about discrepancies between scoring forms (HoR 5/11) and vote count reports (HoR 5/18). Early voting also revealed errors from PON duties, such as incorrect province and district codes written on ballot envelopes that did not match voters’ rights. In some districts, election materials were even found discarded in garbage dumps. These incidents damage national integrity and affect voters' confidence.
Second, on developing an intelligent incident reporting and election monitoring system: The report mentioned activities like meetings, relationship building, and educating on the use of the “Pineapple Eye” app. But I question whether there have been real qualitative performance indicators. Currently, when citizens report election fraud, the EC asks them to provide additional evidence themselves. Also, when downloading the Pineapple Eye app, users are invited to download two other EC apps. I ask why the EC does not consolidate all three into one app to simplify usage and save budget.
Kittichai also proposed two recommendations: First, regarding poll workers, he urged the EC to use its budget efficiently by holding continuous annual training for poll workers to maintain readiness, rather than only training shortly before elections. Historically, the EC's budget focused mainly on training internal staff. The EC could better use its existing budget for online or e-learning systems to train poll workers, allowing them to review procedures and test their understanding anytime. Most importantly, the EC must assess poll workers' competence before their duties, not just count training hours—a recurring problem that the OAG has criticized for inappropriate target setting and unsuitable quantitative success indicators.
Second, regarding system development and professional staff: If the EC continues projects to develop election incident reporting systems, it should report statistics on how many citizens have reported incidents via the app, whether follow-ups occur, how many cases were processed, and how many warnings or sanctions were issued. This information should be publicly disclosed to build trust in the EC’s fairness and integrity. He concluded by saying he hopes the upcoming elections for Bangkok governor and Pattaya mayor managed by the EC will be free from errors and maintain public trust, unlike previous HoR elections.
The reporter added that the Bangkok governor and Pattaya mayor elections will take place on Sunday, 28 June 2026 GMT+7.