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King Prajadhipok’s Institute 115

evidence creditable performance. The Commission also lacks a meaningful
relationship with the public. This undermines the Election Commission’s

accountability, sorely needed in view of the lack of public involvement
in the process of selection and election of the Election Commission.

To improve the performance of the Election Commission,
a studies should analyze and disseminate their finding based on ample
available data, including records of voter turnout, valid ballots, and invalid

ballots; surveys of the level of public participation, and results of various
assessments of the Election Commission’s performance.

D. Comparative IEC Patterns and Trends

The review of the IECs and recent electoral exercises (within the
past decade) yield the following comparative observations:

1. Deeply entrenched patronage politics, political dynasties,
and political party systems controlled by powerful minority groups
are still major socio-political challenges and obstacles to the

performance of IECs. Apart from organizational issues, the prevailing
electoral environment of patronage politics, disconnected political parties

and voting public, and corruption present major contextual challenges
to ensuring the conduct of free, fair, honest, and legitimate elections,
electoral competitions, plebiscites, and referendums. Philippine and

Thai elections continue to be marred by voter disenfranchisement,
election-related violence, fraud, voter intimidation, massive vote buying,

poor election infrastructure, use of political pressure by the elite and
powerful influence groups to influence parties and the electoral process,