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118 ENHANCING ELECTIONS AS INSTRUMENTS OF DEMOCRACY IN THE ASEAN REGION

in COMELEC affairs but it puts great pressure on the President to make
appropriate and competent appointments to the Commission and once

appointed, the commissioners are faced with the task of performing and
managing legislative, executive, and quasi-judicial functions.

There is a need to set and define further the parameters of
state interventions (extent of oversight powers and limits) in IEC affairs in
order to ensure its independence, and so as not to impede its function

and growth as an institution. Likewise, it is also necessary to have in
place provisions that will enable greater transparency in the process of

Commissioner nomination, vetting, and appointment, and transparency
in the administration of the Commission thereafter in order to ensure
institutional competence in the performance of mandated functions

and, consequently, increase public confidence in the Commission.

4. In Thailand, there has been a debate regarding the
structural set-up that will yield greater efficiency and effectiveness
for an IEC (centralized versus devolved functions). Regardless of the

approach employed, IECs increasingly realize the need for “force
multipliers” in election management, administration, and monitoring.

The COMELEC provides for a more streamlined organizational structure,
with the performance and management of the major electoral functions
– election policymaking, administration, voter/ public education, election

monitoring, adjudication and dispute resolution -- centralized under the
COMELEC. In Thailand, the ECT also manages the entire electoral process.

But there had been studies that propose other agencies and bodies
external to the ECT handle different aspects of the electoral process: