The public can monitor Bangkok officials checking ballots for the May 14 election via CCTV installed at polling stations, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) announced on Wednesday.
It also advised the public not to mistake the ballot-checking, which runs from Wednesday to Friday, as an attempt to tamper with ballots.
The BMA has installed CCTV cameras and motion detectors in strongrooms at polling stations across the metropolitan area. The rooms, which are restricted to authorised personnel only, are being used to store ballots for advance and normal voting. The public can monitor the stations via CCTV online at https://general-election.bangkokcc.com/.
“From Wednesday to Friday, officials will check ballots to be used in Sunday’s election, as well as store ballots from the early voting last Sunday,” BMA spokesman Aekvarunyoo Amrapala said on Thursday. “While doing so, officials might have to enter the rooms periodically.”
He advised people watching the live CCTV feeds not to be alarmed if officials activated the motion sensors in strong rooms during their duties.
The BMA has also added a “situation update” section to the website to notify the public of the latest developments regarding officials’ working in the strongrooms, he added.
Aekvarunyoo explained that the strongroom surveillance was implemented to ensure transparency of the election process in Bangkok. The capital is Thailand’s biggest battleground of this Sunday’s general election with 33 constituency seats up for grabs.