Thailand's Senate candidate registrations kick off actively

BANGKOK, March 4 (TNA) - Candidates have begun applying for contesting in Thailand's Senate election, scheduled for March 30, 2014. The Election Commission of Thailand (EC) opened the five-day application for the Senate election on Tuesday morning, when many candidates arrived at registration venues nationwide even before the opening time, set at 8:30am. In Bangkok, three candidates arrived at the venue, the Parliament building, including Police Major General Supisarn Pakdinaruenart, a former Crime Suppression Division commander, who picked up number one to contest in the forthcoming Upper House election. In three southern Thai provinces of Surat Thani, Yala and Songkhla. the Senate registrations were lively, as several people turned up at registration sites to offer morale support to candidates. A similar lively atmosphere was reported in Samut Songkhram Province near Bangkok, as eight candidates registered themselves to contest in the election, in which only one senator would be elected and represented for his or her province. However, the atmosphere in the northeastern province of Sakon Nakhon was rather dull even though several educationists applied to contest in the Senate election and there was not a single politician showed up. Advance voting for the March 30 Senate election is scheduled for March 23. A total of 77 senators will be elected to sit in the 150-member Thai Upper House, while the remainder comes from appointment. (TNA)