Published on January 31, 2005

Modern marketing campaigns being used to snare canvassers, some voters asked to photograph ballots

Vote-buying appears to be rampant ahead of next Sunday’s general election with several new methods gaining popularity, an Election Commission (EC) source said yesterday.

Among the new strategies are the use of a direct-sales-style pyramid scheme to “buy” canvassers, buying the votes of employees at small companies and buying the votes of entire families. Some campaigns are also requiring voters to use camera phones to take a photo of their ballot as proof of their vote, the source said.

The EC, which has been flooded with complaints, will consider 16 cases of alleged electoral fraud today and another 10 cases tomorrow, said EC secretary-general Ekkachai Waroonprapha.

Meanwhile, in Nakhon Ratcha-sima, the provincial EC chief said it was highly likely that certain candidates in the province would be disqualified following intense competition between “two big parties”.

Paiboon Makkaviman said the local election authorities were keeping a close watch on constituencies 4, 5, 6 and 11 of the northeastern province amid increasing signs of vote buying and other forms of election fraud.

In general, candidates were turning to more subtle vote-buying methods in the run-up to the election with the direct sales-style practice of buying canvassers being an especially popular tactic, the EC source said.

Under this method, he said, candidates engaged in vote-buying would try to win the support of major canvassers, who in turn would try to win the support of smaller canvassers, who then would be dispatched to find even lower-tier canvassers in the pyramidal structure common to direct-sales campaigns. A major canvasser is required to recruit 10 smaller canvassers and each of the smaller canvassers in turn has to recruit another 10 canvassers and so on. They are paid according to their level of success in recruiting subordinate canvassers, the source said.

“This method has been detected in every region, but mostly in the North and Northeast,” the source said. “We can already see that some canvassers [involved in the scheme] have much better living conditions than before.”

He added that the EC had found that some new candidates in northern provinces, who were wealthier than established politicians, had also met canvassers of rivals in an effort to outbid their rivals. He said most of the candidates had promised to pay canvassers for votes after winning in the election.

He explained that the EC had also found that some small firms had received lump sums to parcel out to their workers if they were willing to vote for a particular candidate. “Most employees would feel obliged to vote for a particular candidate on the order of their bosses,” the source said, adding that this tactic had been used in Bangkok and some major provinces.

Aree Polratthanasit, a Thai Rak Thai candidate in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Constituency 6, said he had learnt that some young voters planned to use their camera phones to take shots of their ballots as proof in claiming rewards for their votes from canvassers. Aree said he had learnt that small groups of young canvassers had been feted in coffee shops ahead of the election.

Ekkachai said the EC did not prohibit people from carrying camera phones into voting booths, but that anyone discovered taking photos of ballots would be arrested and charged by police. “We will take legal action against anyone seen taking photos of ballots because the law requires balloting to be done in secret,” he said.

In the northeastern region alone, the amount spent on buying votes by the candidates was estimated at between Bt7 billion to Bt10 billion, said Somkiat Pongpaiboon, an academic at the Rajabhat Institute Nakhon Ratchasima’s election information centre. Somkiat said vote buyers often paid sums of money to heads of families based on the number of eligible voters in their households.

Several vote buyers also planned to fork out money during the night preceding the election day, or else on the morning to convince voters already bought by other candidates to change their minds, he said.

He added that some candidates resorted to part-payment tactics, whereby advance payments would be followed by more money after a preferred candidate had triumphed in the election. For example, if a voter was promised Bt500 for a particular vote, he or she would get Bt200 up front and Bt300 after the election, Somkiat explained.

Ekkachai said the 16 cases of alleged fraud, which would be under review by the EC today, would include a charge against Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob, who had allegedly promised money to local officials in Phattalung and Satun if Thai Rak Thai candidates running in the provinces won in their constituencies.

Ekkachai added that all cases under review were supported by credible evidence, and that the EC would try to make a ruling on them right away, the strength of evidence permitting.

Meanwhile, the Democrat Party’s Bangkok election director Phiraphan Sariratvipak charged that the Vocational Education Department had sent its officials and students to repair electrical appliances for residents of Bangkok’s Constituency 21 free of charge, apparently in a bid to convince locals to vote for a particular candidate, who is a Cabinet member’s son.

Phiraphan said the minister had overseen the repair work of the students personally and that the Democrat Party had obtained a photo of him at the scene as evidence.

Phiraphan also questioned why high numbers of people, especially soldiers, were flocking to vote in advance. “There’s no reason for soldiers to come out [of their barracks] to vote in advance because they can vote in their barracks on election day anyway,” he said.

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