Monday, November 26, 2012

Thung Kwao TAO upgraded to municipality

The first of more than 140 TAO upgraded to municipalities in August has been officially announced in the Royal Gazette last Friday [Gazette]. I am only covering this first one as I won't be able to write a posting on all the forthcoming announcements - at least I hope they will be published in the Gazette, not like those four years ago which are still not yet published there.

The TAO in this announcement is Thung Kwao (เทศบาลตำบลทุ่งกวาว), Mueang Phrae district, Phrae province, about 3 kilometer northeast of the town center of Phrae. With a population of 6010 (as of December 31 2011) it is one of the rather small municipalities - though there are a lot smaller ones as well. The upgrade has been effective on August 31, one week after the term of the TAO council and mayor has ended. And quite fast, the new council and mayor were already elected on October 21 - thanks to the local Election Commission which finished the constituencies before the upgrade became effective [Gazette]. The new mayor is Prakit Suphaphon (ประกิจ สุภาผล), previously the village headmen of Mu 5, who defeated the last TAO mayor Phichit Patmaphonphong (พิชิต ปัทมาภรณ์พงศ์) with 1,639 votes vs. 1,547 votes.

Quite interesting is the transcript of the board meeting 28/2555, in which the upgrade of Thung Kwao was first discussed. Most is of course just the lengthy text which is present for every such act. But, this upgrade was discussed in a public hearing in Thung Kwao, in which out of 4,559 eligible voters 749 approved the upgrade and 748 disapproved - quite a small margin of approval.

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