Samui municipal elections

The municipal elections of the new town Ko Samui (เทศบาลเมืองเกาะสมุย) will take place on September 13, with three contenders who have chances to win the mayor post.

• Varakorn Rattanarak (วรากรณ์ รัตนรักษ์), Phattana Samui Party (พัฒนาสมุย)
• Ramnet Jaikwang (รามเนตร ใจกว้าง), Samui Kaona Party (สมุยก้าวหน้า)
• Prayad Meepain (ประหยัด มีเพียร), Rak Samui Party (รักสมุย)

In a poll from early August Ramnet Jaikwang was the leading candidate with 43%, while the previous mayor Varakorn Rattanarak only got 28%.

As posted before, the election was delayed a bit due to controversial changes in the constituency outline. The boundaries were officially announced in the Royal Gazette on August 22 (Volume 125, Issue 95 ก, Pages 74-76) titled ประกาศคณะกรรมการการเลือกตั้ง เรื่อง การแบ่งเขตเลือกตั้งสมาชิกสภาเทศบาลในจังหวัดสุราษฎร์ธานี (เทศบาลเมืองเกาะสมุย อำเภอเกาะสมุย) (Announcement of the election committee on the setup of constituencies for municipal councils in Surat Thani province [town municipality Ko Samui, Ko Samui district]).

With this announcement, the area of the municipality got divided into three constituencies, which each will send six representatives into the municipal council. All three constituencies have about 17,000 eligible voters. Constituency 1 in the northeast of the island covers the subdistricts Ang Thong, Lipa Noi and villages 4, 5 and 6 of Mae Nam; constituency 2 covers the southern island with the subdistricts Taling Ngam, Na Mueang and Maret; and constituency 3 the northeast with subdistrict Bo Phut and village 1,2 and 3 of Mae Nam.