EDITORIAL : THE BANGKOK POST, THAILAND

 

 

Keeping out the frivolous

Five of the country's most important business groups have issued one of the most common-sense statements on the election. The associations have called for a responsible election, to be followed by a calm study of what mistakes the country is making in social development, and how to fix them.

Like the groups' recent call for an organised fight against corruption, the attempt to cool the hotheads of Election 2011 is welcome.

The call to reason by the Federation of the Thai Capital Market Organisations, Thai Bankers' Association, Thai Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Thai Industries and the Tourism Council of Thailand, will stir political opposition and support. Still, it is understandable why the media groups _ the Thai Journalists Association and Thai Broadcast Journalists Association _ want to support the call for national reconciliation and fairness. Any reasonable citizen should do the same.
One important point addressed by the business-media statement concerned integrity. There is likely to be cheating in this election, as there has been in every election. Blatant cheating, clear bribery, intimidation of voters and the like must be exposed.
But the election passions must also be properly harnessed. As the appeal for common sense put it, everyone "must accept the election results". This means that responsible parties must not file, and the authorities must not accept, frivolous complaints.
In recent days, it has been suggested that an alleged assault by a Pheu Thai supporter on a Democrat Party backer could be the subject of a complaint that would end up in the dissolution of Pheu Thai. Even giddier partisans claim that heckling of candidates should be considered as a grave example of election cheating. These are only examples from this week's headlines, but they could set the stage for an avalanche of flippant complaints against winning candidates and parties in the days following the election.
Already, one unaligned but anti-Pheu Thai group has set up a group of "warriors" to shadow candidates to gather evidence of legal breaches, in order to "red-card every winning PT candidate".
This sort of mean-spirited and anti-democratic attitude will land the election, democracy and the country in much more difficulty than it already is. Candidates should be called to answer for clearly illegal tactics which resulted in victory.
Just as vote-buying and ballot-box stuffing are obvious violations of the election laws, any attempt to disorganise the results of the election should be considered an equally clear violation of the spirit of the election laws.
Silly complaints may be made by people of ill will, but must be weeded out and discarded by the Election Commission and, if necessary, by prosecutors and the courts.
Anyone who makes false claims against any candidate should be held to account before the courts. Nor can officials make political parties responsible for the actions of their supporters. To even suggest this would be a strong invitation to perform "dirty tricks" and blame it on another group.
An election is held to gauge the opinion of voters about who they want to govern the country. Any attempt to upset the polls at any time must be dealt with seriously. This holds true whether it is politicians or bitterly partisan citizens trying to cheat the voters.
It will be unacceptable if frivolous complaints are used to overturn the voters' choice.