The Social Security Office (SSO) opened nominations on July 1 for employer and employee representatives to be elected as board members for 2025. As of 9 a.m. on July 16, 2025, 195 candidates had registered: 85 from the employer side and 110 from the employee side. Voter registration has climbed to 1,229,751 people, up from 1,080,705 on July 15—a jump of nearly 100,000 in a single day, with employee-side registrations increasing from 1,069,373 to 1,216,929.

Employee-side candidates must be Thai nationals at least 18 years old and registered contributors with at least three months of payments within the preceding six months. They must not be bankrupt, stripped of voting rights, convicted of electoral fraud or corruption, or hold political office. Employer-side candidates must be registered employers or their authorized representatives, also Thai nationals at least 18, with at least three months of contributions in the prior six months, and subject to the same disqualifications.

Voters on the employee side must be registered contributors with at least six consecutive months of registration and three months of contributions within the prior six months. Employer-side voters must be registered employers with six months of continuous registration and three months of contributions, or authorized representatives. All voters must register by July 20, 2025, to participate in the election scheduled for September 27, 2025. The SSO has extended the registration deadline, the deadline for changing polling locations, and the deadline for updating voter status.

Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has issued a ministerial order on July 16, 2025, appointing a new acting director-general for the Department of Local Administration. The appointment of Nirat Pongsitthavaon, Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Interior Ministry's Office of the Permanent Secretary, is effective from July 16, 2025, and will remain in force until a replacement is formally announced. This follows an earlier temporary assignment of Theerutm Suphavibulphol as interim director beginning June 15, 2025. The appointment is made under Section 46 of the State Administration Act of 1991 to ensure proper oversight and management of local administration functions.

On July 16, 2026, at the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Road, former Phuket Provincial Administrator Roongruang Thimabutr filed a defamation lawsuit against a landowner in Phuket who accused him of extorting 1 million baht in exchange for altering land ownership documents. Roongruang stated that he is suing for defamation and filing false charges intended to incriminate him, denying that he ever demanded money for document alterations. He claimed that a 1-million-baht transfer to an associate's account was unrelated to his actions, and that the landowner then filed criminal charges against him afterward.

Roongruang insisted he would never dare to extort money from a wealthy landowner and emphasized there is no financial connection to him whatsoever. He questioned why his case was handled with unusual speed and apparent double standards, leading to his immediate removal from civil service, while other fraud cases involving billions remain unresolved. He also addressed allegations filed by his former supervisor on June 24, stating he cannot discuss details while proceedings are ongoing, but he firmly denies ever seeking benefits from three individuals involved in a local investigation.

Roongruang explained that he returned to work in Phuket on June 24, when the victim filed a complaint. On June 26, the court issued an arrest warrant and he was detained. The following day, his supervisor ordered his dismissal from the civil service without investigating the facts or verifying whether the allegations were true. His legal team has separately filed a complaint against his supervisor with the Anti-Corruption and Misconduct Court for the improper dismissal order.

Narintr Somneuk, Roongruang's attorney, disclosed that today's lawsuit against the Phuket landowner alleges he filed false charges accusing Roongruang of demanding 1 million baht. The defense has evidence refuting the claim. The attorney also requested that the court summon the Phuket Provincial Committee chairman who issued the land inspection order to testify. The Criminal Court accepted the case under black case number 2024/2569 and scheduled a hearing on October 26, 2026.

BANGKOK: The death toll from the devastating Bangkok bar fire has risen to 33, authorities said yesterday (July 15), as Thailand pledged a nationwide overhaul of entertainment venue regulations.

Residents and attorney Chaiyuth Arayavongse of Buriram's Bung Charoeng Subdistrict have assembled to demand that provincial industrial and natural resources authorities investigate a large rubber processing plant spanning over 76 rai situated in the heart of their community. Villagers report the factory discharges wastewater into natural water sources, operates noisy machinery, and emits foul-smelling odors day and night, causing respiratory and breathing illnesses particularly among children and the elderly. The community has suffered for 20 years; despite filing complaints and even winning a 2566 Supreme Administrative Court order requiring local government and industrial authorities to jointly resolve the issue, no meaningful action has been taken. The factory, established in 2549, continues to expand production facilities while rumors circulate that it is foreign-owned. Chaiyuth notes the factory has never implemented improvements despite decades of complaints, and he questions why odor standards were raised to 2,500 units outside industrial zones in 2562—far above the 300-unit threshold that already affected the entire subdistrict. He appeals to the newly reappointed Industry Minister Warawut Silpaakaan to intervene. Villager Uma Pengprakone, 47, describes how her family has endured years of foul-smelling emissions, nose irritation, and breathing difficulties, with her 90-year-old mother, son, and herself all afflicted with respiratory symptoms.

A source from the former central committee overseeing local government employee exams has revealed an ongoing scheme in which brokers are collecting additional payments of 300,000–500,000 baht from people who previously paid 500,000–700,000 baht to buy their exam positions. The brokers claim they can use their connections with committee members to remove the names of flagged candidates from disqualification lists before final approvals, targeting over 15,000 people already placed in local government positions nationwide who now face review and potential lifetime bans from civil service.

Those who paid for their positions are now fearful of investigation and potential criminal charges if anomalies are found in their exam papers. The brokers claim to have already coordinated with committee members who have agreed to help remove names from lists of candidates with suspicious answer sheets. Some people have been duped into paying the additional bribes, though the process remains in the early stages and names have not yet been formally submitted to the committee. Related coverage notes that Deputy Prime Minister Anutin is awaiting a central committee decision on dismissals for those involved in the exam fraud scheme.