Surat Thani PAO by-election results

The by-election for the chairman of the Surat Thani provincial organization (PAO) was done yesterday, and the website of the PAO has the full results down to each constituency in one PDF file. It was a quite close result:

1. Montri Phetchakhum (มนตรี เพชรขุ้ม, Candidate 3, top poster) - 113,340 votes or 38.1%
2. Damrong Thaugsuban (ดำรงค์ เทือกสุบรรณ, Candidate 1, poster below) - 111,776 votes or 37.6%
3. Prawit Ninwatromni (ประวิช นิลวัชรมณี, Candidate 2) - 72,136 votes or 24.3%

Out of the 676,850 eligible votes, slightly less than half (i.e. 322,768) did cast their vote. 5,993 votes were invalid, another 19,853 were abstains.

I am slightly surprised that Montri, the one who filed the complaint against Thani Thaugsuban which led to this by-election, could win and not the Damrong, who gave up his seat in the PAO council and the post of the speaker of the council so he must have be quite sure to be the winner.

Additionally to the chairman, also the council member for Ko Samui was elected, as the former council member Surinya Yuennan (สุริญญา ยืนนาน) was red-carded; and also in Tha Chana a by-election was necessary as this was the constituency of Damrong Thaugsuban who had to resign his council seat to run for the chairman position.

The results for these two constituencies are as following.

• Ko Samui
  1. Charoen Chansa (เจริญ จันทรา, Candidate 2, see poster) - 8,422 votes
  2. Suwaphat Samwang (สุวพัฒน์ สมหวัง, Candidate 1) - 7,867 votes
• Tha Chana
  1. Bunying Yongli (บุญยิ่ง ย้งลี, Candidate 1) - 12,264 votes
  2. Phittinan Rak-iat(พิตตินันท์ รักเอียด, Candidate 2) - 4,140 votes
  3. Watthana Samli (วัฒนา สำลี, Candidate 3) - 3,640 votes
  4. Somdet Phromwiset (สมเดช พรหมวิเศษ, Candidate 4) - 569 votes

Many thanks to Camille from the Samui info and weather blog, who has provided me with the photos of the election posters.