Alleged election fraud committed during advance voting in Samut Songkhram was likely caused by a misunderstanding rather than ill intent, a senior election official based in the province said yesterday.
Pinthong Intarasri, director of Samut Songkhram provincial election office, said the suspect, identified only as a 27-year-old called Benjamaporn, was mistakenly given a booklet of ballot papers when she showed up for advance voting.
The voter took it with her to a polling booth where, instead of marking one ballot paper, she marked all 17 in the book. She then placed one ballot paper in an envelope and dropped it in a ballot box before returning the booklet with 16 marked papers to an election official.
It was not until the next voter turned up that staff noticed the remaining ballots were marked. The booklet was later marked as spoiled and voting was suspended for one and a half hours until replacement ballots were sent.
The incident took place at a polling station where 796 people from 18 provinces had registered for advance voting at Samut Songkhram technical college on Sunday. The spoiled ballots were for voters registered to vote in Nonthaburi's Constituency 6.
According to Ms Pinthong, election staff lodged a complaint with police in Muang district who tracked down Ms Benjamaporn to her house in Amphawa district and brought her in for questioning.
Ms Benjamaporn told police she did not intend to commit fraud or spoil the ballot papers. She was quoted as saying she saw the entire booklet at the table and thought she was allowed to take it and mark all the ballot papers.
Ms Benjamaporn was charged with causing damage to the ballot papers.
"Initially it is believed there was no malicious intent. But the election officials have to file a complaint so the incident is investigated thoroughly," Ms Pinthong said.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon insisted yesterday military personnel are free to vote for whichever political party they want amid accusations that they have been told to cast ballots for a certain party.
Gen Prawit said soldiers were not ordered to vote for a particular party, believed to Palang Pracharath, which has nominated Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha as its prime ministerial candidate.
