Thai EC, CMPO agree to work together

BANGKOK, February 3 (TNA) - The Election Commission of Thailand (EC) and the Center for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) have agreed to cooperate appropriately. An election commissioner, Somchai Srisuthiyakorn, announced the agreement with CMPO Director Chalerm Yubamrung, who is also Caretaker Labor Minister, on Monday afternoon, after their discussion earlier in the day. The CMPO chief and the election commissioner discussed appropriate shares of responsibilities relating to election organization. According to the election commissioner, his election agency is an independent body which is duty-bound to organize elections, while the CMPO has supportive mechanisms. The election commissioner also said the EC would set an appropriate date for the reorganization of the general election in problematic constituencies but he does not think the next national poll can happen in seven days because there are so many pending problems, citing that the EC needs to have more ballots printed, recruit staffs of polling stations and find places for polling, as private landlords, the military and some police stations refused to let the EC organize election in their compounds. The election commissioner promised, however, that the EC would set the next polling date appropriately in order to ensure the legality of the election. The election commissioner also asked politicians to solve political problems to facilitate election organization, admitting that the organization of the February 2 general election was the most difficult in the Thai history as election staffs were threatened in some provinces although they tried their best to perform their duties. Somchai was the only election commissioner who met the CMPO chief and other concerned authorities. Other leading CMPO figures present at the meeting included Caretaker Justice Minister Chaikasem Nitisiri, Department of Special Investigation (DSI) Director-General Tarit Pengdith and Deputy National Police Chief Police General Pongsapat Pongcharoen.(TNA)