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attitudes they bring to bear on their work and on th€ir cooperation.

Thirasak Kansut. the ECT's chairman. is a former senior judge. He heads the
general administration section and is responsible for budgeting. organizing the ECT's meet-
ings. and for foreign relations. etc.

Kothom Ariya. responsible for the public participation section. graduated with a
doctorate in engineering from Paris. France. and he used to be a lecturer in this field at
Chulalongkorn University. More important to our subject. he was the secretary of Poll Watch
between 1992 and 1997. and he has been active in human rights oriented and critical NGOs
such as Focus of the Global South or Forum Asia. etc.. for a long time.

Yuwarat Kamonwet holds an MA in public administration from the University of
the Philippines. He heads the election administration section. Yuwarat is a former provincial
governor as well as a former director-general of the labor department. He retired from his
position as an inspector in the Ministry of the Interior in 1993. During the CDA's time. he was
secretary to a project jointly organized by the National Research Council of Thailand and the
CDA's academic sub-committee that was headed by the chairman of our panel. Achan Kramol.
One major task of this project was to study problems related to elections. to prepare a report.
and to organize a seminar for CDA members on this subject.

Wisut Phothitaen is responsible for the ECT's political party and referendum
section. He has an MA in Government from the University of Queensland. Australia.~ and a
post-graduate diploma from the Institute of Social Studies. The Hague. Netherlands. Before he
assumed his present position. he had been a lecturer at and dean of the Faculty of Political
Science. Thammasat University. and he had been a member of the CDA as well.

Sawat Chotipanit is a former president of the Supreme Court. a former permanent

secretary of the Ministry of Justice. and a former senator. to mention but a few of his
positions. Fittingly. he heads the ECT's investigation and adjudication office.

Since the backgrounds as well as the personalities of the commissioners are rather
diverse. problems in working together have been unavoidable. For example. to observers or to
members of the Provincial Election Commissioners-to whom I shall return in a moment-it
often seems as if Achan Kothom and Khun Yuwarat. 'to mention two names. were telling
different stories. Arguably. the most well known conflict in the ECT concerns the question of

whether sitting senators and members of the House of Representatives are subject to the

3 His thesis was submitted in 1975. and it has the title "Problems in the Development of
Democracy in Thailand."