The Election Commission (EC) reviewed the election lessons and admitted flaws in the vote reporting system and insufficient public communication. It explained that the reporting system crashed due to the sudden dissolution of parliament and the simultaneous reception of data from 100,000 polling stations. The EC confirmed there were no "secret rooms" or "special rooms" for altering vote counts.
On 25 Sep 2026 GMT+7, Lieutenant Captain Pasakorn Siripakayaporn, Deputy Secretary-General of the Election Commission, spoke at a forum reviewing the general election organized by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Legal Affairs, Justice, and Human Rights. He addressed doubts and flaws in the election process, admitting there were several limitations and errors. The EC plans to use the information and suggestions to improve understanding and transparency in the future.
Regarding doubts about the codes on the front of advance ballot envelopes, the Deputy Secretary-General explained that these codes are part of the administrative process for delivery to each electoral district, and the codes are posted at polling stations. However, he admitted it was a shortcoming of the EC that public communication about this was insufficient, causing public confusion.
In normal procedure, polling station officials must show the envelope code to voters to verify the district and province before voting. However, human errors can occur. For the next election, the EC plans to replace handwritten codes with printed ones on the envelopes to facilitate convenience and minimize errors.
Regarding the unofficial vote reporting system, which showed discrepancies, delays, or missing numbers, Lieutenant Captain Pasakorn explained that the original system was designed for regular scheduled elections. The sudden dissolution of parliament meant the system was not fully ready. When nearly 100,000 polling stations submitted data simultaneously, the system became unstable or crashed, similar to a system overloaded with many users at once. Additionally, polling officials had to enter data via smartphones, which faced limitations due to convenience and signal issues in some areas. The election’s complexity was like "playing two sports on the same field," combining MP elections and a referendum, plus party-list ballots with many parties, causing data entry errors at the polling station level.
The Deputy Secretary-General firmly denied the existence of any "secret rooms" or "special rooms" for altering votes. He explained that late-night changes in vote numbers resulted from the data center verifying the accuracy of figures sent from polling stations and correcting them to reflect reality. He emphasized that online reporting was unofficial only, and no one could alter the official vote counts posted at polling stations. The EC has now made the detailed polling station data publicly available for verification.