Today is polling day in the local village elections where I live in Thailand. The new Phu Yai Ban(Village Headman) is being elected so I decided to go along and witness democracy at work in rural Thailand.
The polling station is located in the village hall and open between 8am and 3pm.
It is being staffed by local government officers from Tambon Khlong Wan all of whom are resplendent in their uniforms. In the above photograph the two seated officers check a persons identification card and mark them off a register(voting register-list of eligible voters). The man standing near by is the officer in charge of the polling station(returning officer).
After a voter registered they then joined a queue to receive their ballot paper. Officers checked the persons address from a register, which the person signed before being issued with a ballot paper. The ballot paper had the candidates number(not name) and a box against each to insert a cross.
The actual ballot box was clear sided and in open view, behind it in this photograph you can see the small open ended metal screens on the table that served as booths to afford privacy when voting.
A Royal Thai Police Officer was on duty at the polling station and both he and the returning officer(also pictured) were happy for me to take photographs of the proceedings.
There are only two candidates in the election for village headman who I managed to find not too far from the polling station. Candidate one is the previous village headman who is standing for re-election and is on the left.
Generally speaking there is very little information publicly available(in English) about village headman elections or indeed the actual post itself so I took this opportunity to interview Candidate One who lives nearby. He did not speak English but I did find out some interesting information.
The post of headman now attracts a salary of 10,000 Baht a month although if I understood correctly this comes from two different sources(unspecified). The term of office is fixed at five years, but he can be voted out of the job if the villagers are not satisfied before his tenure expires. He may also apply for re-election as many times as he wishes.
Both candidates are allowed to be present when the votes are counted at the polling station, since there is only one venue for casting votes. They may not however canvas voters arriving at the polling station. I also found out that there are 1005 souls entitled to vote in Muban 2 which clearly covers an area bigger than the main village where I live.
So what impression am I left with about local democracy in a Thai village?
To be honest I was very impressed at the organisation of the ballot and the apparent openness of the proceedings. Despite some reports to the contrary the election was by secret ballot and conformed to accepted democratic guidelines. Given that accusations of vote buying are often banded about at other Thai elections, today I witnessed nothing out of the ordinary. Of course I am not in a position to know what happened before polling day.
Village Election Result
Candidate One won the election by 330 to 236 votes which means voter turnout was around 50%.
Related posts:
Pingback: Tweets that mention Village Elections in Thailand -- Topsy.com