Lawmaker Alleges Vote Rigging Patterns in Senate Election
An opposition lawmaker presented evidence of suspicious voting patterns in the senate election, claiming identical ballot sequences appeared 18 times in one group and similar anomalies across all 20 groups, suggesting predetermined selectio
At 9:00 AM on August 9, 2026, at parliament, the opposition parties' coordination committee led by Prixt Wachrasindhu held the fourth session to examine evidence in the senate election case. Panida Mongkolswasdi, Yingchip Atchananont, director of the Internet for Law People project, and Bunyanuch Matthujakr discussed their findings. Panida revealed that in the morning national senate ballot round, a series of numbers appeared in identical sequence: 84, 111, 95, 7, 126, 49, 148, 107, 137, 14. While one or two matching ballots could be coincidence, these exact sequences appeared on 18 ballots. The public administration and security group showed this pattern, with Senate President Mongkol Surasatchya receiving 34 morning votes and 67 afternoon votes, and Deputy President Kriengsak Srirak receiving 40 morning votes and 74 afternoon votes. Notably, candidates who scored high in the morning saw dramatic drops in the afternoon. Similar patterns were found across multiple other groups, including agriculture and fisheries, with sequences like 79, 77, 46, 33, 16, 93, 152, 26, 60, 74 appearing 16 times. Several candidates from small provinces showed the same pattern of high morning scores followed by afternoon collapses. Panida concluded that across all 20 groups in the afternoon round, the top 10 senate winners included six people consistently, suggesting predetermined selections of 6-7 senators per group. She noted that to achieve this result, one would need to win the afternoon crossover voting where ballots are drawn into five lines of five groups each, with four lines advancing 40 people per group. The rules allow voters to give 5 points to other groups but not their own, with each line containing five groups of 40 candidates each.