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King Prajadhipok’s Institute 89

Due to the mentioned problems and obstacles embedding in
Thailand for over 70 years, political and electoral system development

of every Thai government has paid close attention on how to set rules
and regulations to carry out elections in a free and fair manner and to
employ an election as a mechanism to transfer powers from voters to

competent and suitable representatives. Nonetheless, no matter how
the electoral and monitoring system mechanism is developed, problems

cannot be completely prevented and solved. At the implementation
stage, the political sector always seeks alternative ways to benefit their
election results.

To sum up to this point, referring to the framework of basic
principle of election, Thailand still needs improvements in order to

make elections the process of effective selection of the people’s
representatives. In addition, the principles of freedom of election, genuine

election, universal suffrage, equal suffrage and secret election have to
be achieved and taken into consideration.

With regard to the illegitimate cycle of the Thai political system

which starts from elections, it is undeniable that one of the most
crucial root causes is the election administration and election monitoring
mechanisms that are unable to bring about honest and fair elections.

Adjudication shall be completed through jurisdiction of court of justice
which is mainly involved with civil case and criminal case, whereas

political and electoral cases are the limitations. In particular, the process
of trial and hearing of evidence does not support effective penalty or
punishment of electoral frauds, in spite when it was widely observed that

violations of election laws were conducted by candidates, canvassers,
government officers, and voters.