Thailand Voters to See Live Tally Posts and Snap Photos at Polls

For voters wondering how much sunlight will shine on the coming ballot-count, officials say the answer is “all day long”. Thailand’s election supervisors insist that every score sheet and every routing arrow inside polling stations will be visible, photographable, and posted for everyone to verify.

At-a-glance commitments

• Unofficial numbers for both the parliamentary race and the constitutional referendum promised by around 23:00 on election night.

• Every polling station will pin its final tally sheet at the entrance before staff leave.

• Citizens, party agents and journalists may take pictures or video of the count – provided they keep a respectful distance from workers.

What your neighbourhood booth will look like

Gone are the days of separate tents for separate ballots. The commission has opted for a single-area configuration so that voters move only once through the queue. When you arrive, a marshal will hand you the MP ballot first. After marking that paper, you will follow floor arrows to a second table holding the referendum box. Advance voters who already posted an MP ballot will enter through a side route exclusively for the charter question, open on 8 February.

Why the layout became a courtroom issue

A civic network filed for an Administrative Court injunction, arguing that two ballot types in one zone could muddle first-time voters. In response, the commission’s legal advisers mapped the booth against every clause of the Election Act, then ran public rehearsals. Internal minutes reviewed by the Bangkok Post show planners measuring average walk-time and waiting-time to ensure neither exceeds 90 seconds per person.

The trio of principles driving the revamp

Officials say each design tweak had to tick three boxes:

Safeguard voter intent – prevent mis-dropping of ballots.

Public convenience – keep queues moving even at Bangkok’s larger precincts with 1,000+ names.

Orderly administration – enable fast reconciliation so that results can be uploaded to the central server before midnight.

What happens after the last ballot is cast

As soon as the whistle sounds, staff unseal the boxes in full view. Tally marks are projected on a flip-chart, line by line. Observers snap photos after each 100-vote bundle. When counting ends, the presiding officer signs a green-ink form, sticks it on the notice board and transmits numbers via a mobile reporting app to the district centre. If internet drops, couriers deliver a paper duplicate.

Dos and don’ts for citizen photographers

• You may record video of the counting table.• Lenses must stay behind the yellow tape; leaning over the box is forbidden.• Flashlights are discouraged to avoid claims of ballot tampering.• Uploads to social media are legal, but showing another person’s marked ballot remains a criminal offence.

Next steps before the big day

Regional offices begin a public roadshow next week, setting up mock booths in shopping centres from Chiang Mai to Songkhla. Leaflets in thai, English and Burmese aim to reach migrant workers with voting rights. Meanwhile, technicians will perform a “drill” on 3 February, feeding dummy numbers from all 400 constituencies to stress-test the national dashboard.

Election officials are banking on these measures to blunt allegations of opacity. Whether the promises satisfy sceptics will become clear only when the real stakes – and the real ballots – hit the table.