At least 23 candidates rejected by the Election Commission (EC) filed appeals over the weekend against their disqualification, the Office of Courts of Justice revealed Monday.
The appeals were filed with the Supreme Court's Election Cases Division, after the Election Commission (EC) formally announced the disqualification of scores of candidates from the March 24 election, said Suriyan Hongwilai, the spokesman for the Courts of Justice.
On Friday, the EC announced the disqualification of 107 party-list candidates after it published the names of 2,810 approved list candidates. The poll agency also disqualified three of the 71 prime ministerial candidates from being nominated.
As for candidates running under the constituency system, the EC had left the decision to approve or disqualify them to each provincial election commission. As such, said Mr Suriyan, candidates must check the status of their candidacy with their local poll regulators.
The majority of those involved in appeals over the weekend were disqualified because the candidates and/or political parties failed to meet the administrative prerequisite to compete in the elections -- for example, by having not enough party branches, or by failing to appoint enough party representatives in the provinces, said Mr Suriyan.
Meanwhile, some candidates were disqualified for not meeting the requirement to have been a member of party for at least 90 days before running in the elections, while others were found to be members of more than one party, he said.
A source said that out of the 10,000 registered candidates under the constituency system, about 506 have so-far failed to meet the EC's minimum verification requirements.
Roughly half were disqualified because they joined their party less than 90 days before the election, while the other half were rejected because their names were registered under more than one party, the source said last week.
Kanchanaburi's election commission office, for instance, announced Monday the disqualification of three out of 133 candidates registered to run in the province's five constituencies.
Two candidates from one party were disqualified as their party does not have the minimum number of party branches and representatives in the province, said commission director Suchanya Wimuktayon.
Mr Suchanya said that the other candidate was disqualified as he had previously been dismissed from the civil service.
The candidates may exercise their right under the law to file appeals against the provincial election commission office's decision to disqualify them within seven days, he said.
Because a large number of election-related cases are expected, the Office of the Courts of Justice has already begun preparing to handle these cases, said Mr Suriyan.
Numerous training on election cases and court procedures have been conducted, while handbooks on election-specific court procedures have been distributed to all competing parties, he said. To help ease the Supreme Court's burden, the lower courts will hear witnesses on its behalf when necessary, he said.
