Constitutional Court Rules on Election Ballot Barcode Controversy
Thailand's Constitutional Court ruled on whether barcodes and QR codes printed on February ballots violated election secrecy, after the Ombudsman received 22 complaints that the codes could enable voter identification.
The Constitutional Court convened at 9 a.m. on September 28, 2025, to hear oral arguments, deliberate, and deliver a ruling in case no. 30/2569, which questions whether barcodes and QR codes printed on ballots used in the February 8 parliamentary election could enable voter identification and thus violate the constitutional requirement for secret ballots. The court announced it will issue its judgment at 2 p.m.
The controversy began when media photographs from February 8 showed election officials visibly handling ballots bearing barcodes and QR codes during the evening vote count. The public raised concerns, as no previous Thai election had included such codes on ballots. The Ombudsman received 22 complaints before unanimously forwarding the matter to the Constitutional Court for review under Article 213 of the Constitution.
Petitioners argued that the barcode and QR code format could allow tracing of individual voters and their choices, undermining the constitutional guarantee of secret ballots under Articles 4, 25, 32, 34, 50(7), 83, 85, 95, and 224. On March 18, 2025, the court voted 6–3 to accept the case for full review. The court then conducted witness examinations spanning over five months, hearing testimony from five witnesses including election officials and representatives from the companies that printed and stored the ballots.
Analysts predict the court's ruling may take one of three broad paths: finding no constitutional violation and upholding the election as valid; finding a risk to ballot secrecy but limiting any new election to specific polling units only; or declaring the entire national election void if it determines the codes fundamentally compromised ballot secrecy.
