Electoral districts

With the general elections on December 23 coming nearer, the subdivision of the country in electoral districts (constituencies) is another topic worth mentioning, especially as there were some changes with the new constitution. The country is now subdivided into 8 electoral areas of roughly similar population, which are further subdivided into 157 constituencies. The new constitution returns to the system of having multiple MPs elected in one constituency, which abolished with the introduction of single-MP constituencies with the 1997. So now one constituency can have up to three MPs, depending on the population within the constituency. Additionally, each of the 8 zones send 10 MPs in a a proportional representation system. The official list of provinces in each area, and constituencies in each provinces can be found here. I just haven't yet found how the provinces are divided into the constituencies.

Quite a lot of the discussion of these changes of the electoral system with this election can be found in the article A proportional Election System for Thailand (full text here) by Michael H. Nelson, who is comparing it with the system in use in Germany for many years - quite handy as its the election system I am most familiar with.

Maybe the two best websites covering the events before the election and which will also give the results are 2bangkok and The Nation. And there's of course also the official website of the Election Commission with also some English contents. And the results will probably also be archived in Adam Carr's Election Archive.

Two other blogs worth reading for Thai politics are the one by Bangkok Pundit and New Mandala, which also includes reports by above mentioned Michael H. Nelson.