BANGKOK — Activists said they will petition the National Anti-Corruption Commission on Thursday to recommend that the Supreme Court impeach the seven election commissioners over alleged irregularities.
Sirawith “Ja New” Seritiwat said Friday that he and his colleagues are concerned that the seven commissioners might have mishandled the poll results. Sirawith said this may lead to the election being annulled, which his network of activists does not wish to see occurring.
“We are afraid that people will petition the court to nullify the elections [due to irregularities],” Sirawith told reporters at a press briefing in front of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, adding that the matter is urgent.
Read: Activist Launches Petition to Oust Election Commission
Under the junta-sponsored 2017 constitution, no minimum number of signatures is required to petition the anti-corruption commission to consider forwarding the case to the Supreme Court.
Sirawith hopes that if the current commission is dissolved, the court will establish a more trustworthy set of commissioners to take over the process of officialising the election results. Ensuring the credibility of polling reduces the chances of the election being voided.
If the election is annulled, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha will continue to stay on as junta leader.
Sirawith added that his network will follow up with the anti-corruption commission after the national holiday of Songkran if the case does not move forward.
Student groups from 14 universities have gathered over 7,200 signatures over the past week, according to Sirawith. Some students claim university administrators and staff have attempted to prevent them from gathering signatures.
Sirawith acknowledged that a separate online change.org campaign to impeach the election commissioners is not legally binding, even though it had managed to obtain nearly 850,000 signatures as of Friday evening.
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