- Thread starter
- Staff
- #1
Dadparvar
Staff member
- Nov 11, 2016
- 11,305
- 0
- 6
Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Monday dismissed a challenge to the country’s general election held in February, holding that barcodes and QR codes printed on ballots did not violate the constitutional guarantee of a secret ballot.
Section 83 of Thailand’s 2017 Constitution requires that members of the House of Representatives be elected by “direct and secret ballot.” The issue arose when Thailand’s Election Commission printed barcodes on party-list ballots and QR codes on constituency ballots used in the 2026 general election. Procedurally, each ballot is torn from a stub that the voter signs, and the stub is matched to the voter’s entry in the register.
Following complaints, the Office of the Ombudsman petitioned the Constitutional Court under Section 213 of the Constitution, arguing that scanning the code on a ballot after it was cast could then link it back to its stub, and hence identify the voter who cast it. The Election Commission argued in response that the codes were a necessary anti-forgery measure, and that the concerns were unfounded because the ballots and stubs were stored separately.
The Constitutional Court previously annulled the 2006 general election in part due to ballot privacy concerns and also annulled the 2014 election under procedural concerns regarding early voting and inaccessibility of voting sites.
The Constitutional Court accepted the petition in March. In August, the court heard testimony and sent two judges to inspect the site where ballots, stubs and voter lists had been stored. The judges accepted in principle that a barcode could potentially be traced back to a stub, but found that the voter records were securely stored and that there was no evidence anyone had linked them to learn how a person voted.
In its ruling, the court warned that the dispute had undermined public confidence in the Election Commission, and it recommended that future ballots carry no mark capable of linking a voter to their choice.
Monday’s ruling upholds the election results in which Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s Bhumjaithai Party saw a decisive victory.
The post Thailand rejects ballot secrecy challenge and upholds 2026 general election results appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.
Section 83 of Thailand’s 2017 Constitution requires that members of the House of Representatives be elected by “direct and secret ballot.” The issue arose when Thailand’s Election Commission printed barcodes on party-list ballots and QR codes on constituency ballots used in the 2026 general election. Procedurally, each ballot is torn from a stub that the voter signs, and the stub is matched to the voter’s entry in the register.
Following complaints, the Office of the Ombudsman petitioned the Constitutional Court under Section 213 of the Constitution, arguing that scanning the code on a ballot after it was cast could then link it back to its stub, and hence identify the voter who cast it. The Election Commission argued in response that the codes were a necessary anti-forgery measure, and that the concerns were unfounded because the ballots and stubs were stored separately.
The Constitutional Court previously annulled the 2006 general election in part due to ballot privacy concerns and also annulled the 2014 election under procedural concerns regarding early voting and inaccessibility of voting sites.
The Constitutional Court accepted the petition in March. In August, the court heard testimony and sent two judges to inspect the site where ballots, stubs and voter lists had been stored. The judges accepted in principle that a barcode could potentially be traced back to a stub, but found that the voter records were securely stored and that there was no evidence anyone had linked them to learn how a person voted.
In its ruling, the court warned that the dispute had undermined public confidence in the Election Commission, and it recommended that future ballots carry no mark capable of linking a voter to their choice.
Monday’s ruling upholds the election results in which Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s Bhumjaithai Party saw a decisive victory.
The post Thailand rejects ballot secrecy challenge and upholds 2026 general election results appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.