PAO elections last weekend

Last Sunday, in several provinces the councils and chairmen of the Provincial Administrative Organizations were elected. Sadly I lost the overview, as four years ago there were two dates at which the council elections were done, but I still have no list which of the provinces were at which of the two dates - only Buriram is a special case as it does its elections a few weeks earlier. And to add to the confusion, not all the provinces which had council elections this weekend necessarily also had an election of the chairman ((นายกองค์การบริหารส่วนจังหวัด) - whenever a chairman did not stay in office till the end of the term due to an early resignation, a red or yellow card or even due to assassination, the newly elected chairman has a full four year term. So the number of provinces which has council and chairman elections on the same date is shrinking continuously.

The English press as usual did not cover these local elections much, more focusing on the newly elected transgender councilor in Nan than reporting the overall results, and also many of the provincial Election Commissions websites are not kept up-to-date, so it is difficult to compile a full overview again this time. At least, two other bloggers have covered these election as bit.

• Bangkokpundit focuses on the party affiliations of the chairmen and the council factions, especially if in the PAO elections the same party was chosen as in the last general election.
• BKK Mango has just started a blog, and the only two postings so far are the results of the PAO elections in Phichit and Roi Et. I hope there is more to come.

Municipal decisions of week 22/2012

On the board meeting overview page, the agenda of the two meetings held this week were added. As that list was updated before the meetings were held, the actual agenda might have changed. And again no details yet, only that this time eleven TAO seem to be ready to be upgraded to municipalities.

• Meeting 36/2555 on Tuesday, May 29
  • TAO Khon Sai (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลคอนสาย), Ku Kaeo district, Udon Thani province to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลคอนสาย).
  • TAO Dong Mun (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลดงมูล), Nong Kung Si district, Kalasin province to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลดงมูล).
  • TAO Non Chai Si (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลโนนชัยศรี), Phon Thong district, Roi Et province to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลโนนชัยศรี).
  • TAO Si Don Chai (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลคอนสาย), Chiang Khong district, Chiang Rai province to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลคอนสาย).
  • TAO Khao Khirit (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลเขาคีริส), Phran Kratai district, Kamphaeng Phet province to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลเขาคีริส).
• Meeting 37/2555 on Tuesday, May 30
  • TAO Thung Luang (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลทุ่งหลวง), Suwannaphum district, Roi Et province to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลทุ่งหลวง).
  • TAO Si Somdet (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลศรีสมเด็จ), Si Somdet district, Roi Et province to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลศรีสมเด็จ).
  • TAO Yonok (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลโยนก), Chiang Saen district, Chiang Rai province to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลโยนก).
  • TAO Thung Krabue (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลทุ่งกระบือ), Yan Ta Khao district, Trang province to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลทุ่งกระบือ).
  • TAO Lum Lamchi (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลลุ่มลำชี), Ban Khwao district, Chaiyaphum province to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลลุ่มลำชี).
  • TAO Na Khaeo (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลนาแก้ว), Phon Na Khaeo district, Sakon Nakhon province to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลนาแก้ว).

Municipal decisions from this week

On the board meeting overview page, the agenda of the two meetings held this week were added. Though there are no details, it seems another eight TAO have been cleared to be upgraded to municipalities.

• Meeting 34/2555 on Tuesday, May 22
  • TAO Phon Mueang (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลโพนเมือง), At Samat district, Roi Et province to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลโพนเมือง).
  • TAO Ban Thum (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลบ้านทุ่ม), Mueang Khon Kaen district, Khon Kaen province, to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลบ้านทุ่ม). However strangely, this was already done effective July 18 2008, though not yet announced in the Royal Gazette. See the original board meeting from 2008.
  • TAO Song Phi Nong (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลสองพี่น้อง), Tha Mai district, Chanthaburi province, to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลสองพี่น้อง).
  • TAO Bang Kao (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลบางเก่า), Cha-am district, Phetchaburi province, to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลบางเก่า).
• Meeting 35/2555 on Wednesday, May 23
  • TAO Nong Phai (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลหนองไผ่), Chum Phae district, Khon Kaen province, to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลหนองไผ่).
  • TAO Ban Phot (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลบ้านโภชน์), Nong Phai district, Phetchabun province, to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลบ้านโภชน์).
  • TAO Sathan (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลสถาน), Chiang Khong district, Chiang Rai province, to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลสถาน).
  • TAO Tha Sai (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลท่าสาย), Mueang Chiang Rai district, Chiang Rai province, to become subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลท่าสาย).

Update: The transcript is now available, and it clears the confusion with the upgrade of Ban Thum - in fact the subdistrict municipality is to be upgraded to a town (เทศบาลเมืองบ้านทุ่ม).

Population statistics 2011 at province level

Taking a closer look at the 2011 population statistics, there are some interesting changes in the population number development. To make thing easier to compare with the previous years, I have added the population of Bueng Kan back into Nong Khai, as otherwise Nong Khai would be biggest population looser by far - minus 44% compared with 2010.

Thus comparing 2010 with 2011, the biggest winner is Pathum Thani, which grew by 2.56% (25,255 citizen), closely followed by Phuket which grew by 2.54% (8,780 citizen). The biggest looser was Lampang, which lost 0.58% (4,415 citizen). However, in the top ten of provinces by population, there was no change this time.

1.	Krung Thep Maha Nakhon	5,674,843
2.	Nakhon Ratchasima	2,585,325
3.	Ubon Ratchathani	1,816,057
4.	Khon Kaen	1,766,066
5.	Chiang Mai	1,646,144
6.	Buri Ram	1,559,085
7.	Udon Thani	1,548,107
8.	Nakhon Si Thammarat	1,526,071
9.	Si Sa Ket	1,452,203
10.	Surin	1,380,399

Much more interesting trends show up when comparing the 2011 data with those from 1993, the earliest date for which DOPA has the detailed data online. Three provinces gained population by more than 50%, and these are also the same three which had the highest growth between 2010 and 2011. As the overall population also grew by 9.84%, those provinces which lost population didn't loose as much, but still four provinces lost more than 5% of their population in the last 20 years.

1.	Pathum Thani	102.14%
2.	Phuket	82.23%
3.	Nonthaburi	56.48%
73.	Lampang	-5.05%
74.	Samut Songkhram	-5.78%
75.	Phrae	-6.61%
76.	Phichit	-6.82%

Whereas the population of Bangkok stayed almost stable - an increase of just 1.83% (102,131 citizen) since 1993 - the two provinces north of Bangkok grew significantly. But looking at the geography, this is easily understood - south of Bangkok is just the already densely populated Samut Prakan province, both the east and the west of Bangkok are still not that densely populated, but to the north Nonthaburi adjoins densely populated districts of Bangkok directly.

If anyone wants to play around more with the numbers, I have uploaded an Excel sheet with all the population data from 1993 to 2011 at province level.

Split of Bang Khae district back on the agenda

The split of Bang Khae district, the largest of all the 50 districts of Bangkok by population, is back on the agenda after it was not pushed strong enough to become effective with the 2010 district council elections. Khun Wisarut from the 2bangkok forum has found an article in the Daily News newspaper (เดลินิวส์) which shows that the split of this district is now again in discussion.

According to that article, the city council of Bangkok now sets up a working group to gather the facts like the necessary budget, do a public hearing in the district, so the issue can then be discussed in the next council meeting in June. As the next district council elections will be in 2014 and it is probably preferred to let the current council complete its term, there should be ample time to have the change be effective till then.

TAO Non Khom, Khon Kaen upgraded to municipality

The subdistrict administrative organization Non Khom (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลโนนคอม) in Phu Pha Man district, Khon Kaen province was upgraded to a subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลโนนคอม) with the announcement published in the Royal Gazette yesterday. As it was signed by the Deputy Minister of Interior Chuchat Hansawat (นายชูชาติ หาญสวัสดิ์) on April 17, this is probably also the date by which the upgrade is effective.

Interestingly, as of now the only weblink for เทศบาลตำบลโนนคอม is the Thai Wikipedia article on Phu Pha Man district, which was updated few hours after the publication was online on the Royal Gazette website - this upgrade was not listed in any of the newly available board transcripts of this year.

Thai Fail blog

In a special issue of my Thursday linkage, this time I link with three posting from the Thai fail blog. The Thai fail blog featurs more-or-less funny photos from Thailand - however most of them not understandable without a very good knowledge in Thai language. I even could contribute once myself. Recently, there were three postings there related to the topics I write about.

• Somewhere in Aranyaprathet district, Sa Kaeo province, there is a road named ถนนผู้ว่าฯ นายกฯ 2555) - Province Governor, Mayor Road 2555. If reading the year number in a Thinglish way, it becomes "two ha ha ha". In other words - ludicrous politicians.
• A village in Sisaket is named "Ban O Sabai" (บ้านโอว์สบาย), literally "village O comfortable". A village name which I would have not noticed in my lists of administrative villages, as apparently this village is only a satellite village, part of an administrative village with a different name.
  
• I have no real idea what is the fail at this election poster, explaining in comic style how to vote for the mayor of ... Only guessing from the URL, it may make fun of the fact that on the ballot one has to use a X mark, all other kinds of marking your choice will make the ballot invalid.
  

Board meeting transcripts are back

After more than a year without the board meeting transcripts, and thus no early notice about the municipal changes, now with another redesign of the website of the Legal Affair Bureau of the Permanent Secretary for Interior (สำนักกฎหมาย สำนักงานปลัดกระทรวงมหาดไทย) I finally discovered that the transcripts have reappeared. There were two changes - first they are now in PDF format instead of WinWord, which has the drawback that in some of the files the copy-and-paste does not work. The second change is that for this year the agenda of each meeting is shown in the overview page, and not just the agenda of those meetings already available as transcripts, but also those of the meetings still not held. To bad that for last year there are only the PDFs, thus I will have to check through them manually.

Thus according to this agenda list, this year the board has and will discuss until May 16

• 26 TAO upgrades to municipalities (including one changing name with the upgrade),
• 1 subdistrict municipality upgrade to a town municipality,
• 1 TAO upgrade to a town municipality.

Of course there were other points on the agendas, like land reform acts, but those I won't cover, so I simply only mention the municipal changes. I have already started to post the summaries to the Thesaban Updates Blog, for example the transcript of the March 21 meeting can now be found over there.

Meeting number 19 from March 21 2012 with four TAO upgraded to subdistrict municipalities.

• Som Wang (เทศบาลตำบลสมหวัง), Kong Ra district, Phatthalung province, effective April 6. The TAO was created in 1999, covers 28.34 km², 7 villages and 4,542 citizen.
• Saen Hai (เทศบาลตำบลแสนไห), Wiang Haeng district, Chiang Mai province, effective April 6. The TAO was created in 1999, covers 22 km², 5 villages and 2,988 citizen.
• Chanot (เทศบาลตำบลชะโนด), Wan Yai district, Mukdahan province, effective April 22. The TAO was created in 1999, covers 4.49 km², 5 villages and 2,432 citizen.
• Tae (เทศบาลตำบลแต้), Uthumphon Phisai district, Sisaket province. Decision was moved to a later meeting.

Tambon word cloud

As I just found a nice word cloud creator, I have done the word cloud for this feed. Not sure how many of the nearly 1000 posts were included, but seems like province, district, municipality and subdistrict are quite prominent terms here - well, not really surprising.

9 Province governors transferred

In the May 17, the transfer of 9 province governors was approved.

• Bunchoet Khithen (นายบุญเชิด คิดเห็น), province governor of Lampang to become director-general in the Land Department.
• Tawatchai Thoetphaothai (นายธวัชชัย เทอดเผ่าไทย), province governor of Rayong to become governor of Lampang.
• Seni Chittakasem (นายเสนีย์ จิตตเกษม), province governor of Trang to become province governor of Rayong.
• Thirayut Iamtrakun (นายธีระยุทธ เอี่ยมตระกูล), province governor of Surat Thani to become governor of Trang.
• Chiatsak Chusi (นายเชิดศักดิ์ ชูศรี), inspector-general in the Ministry to become province governor of Surat Thani.
• Somsak Khamthawiphrom (นายสมศักดิ์ ขำทวีพรหม), provicne governor of Roi Et to become inspector-general in the Ministry.
• Wanchat Wongchaichana (นายวันชาติ วงษ์ชัยชนะ), inspector-general in the Ministry to become province governor of Roi Et.
• Chairot Nidaeng (นายชัยโรจน์ มีแดง), province governor of Nakhon Sawan to become governor of Phisanulok.
• Pricha Rueangchan (นายปรีชา เรืองจันทร์), province governor of Phitsanulok to become governor of Nakhon Sawan.

The website of Lampang was already updated, from that page I could find that the transfer was effective April 27.