BANGKOK (Bloomberg): Thailand’s Election Commission will send dozens of alleged Senate vote-rigging cases to the Supreme Court, while clearing cabinet ministers and members of Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s ruling Bhumjaithai Party.
The seven-member commission voted to pursue legal action against 77 people for alleged wrongdoing during the 2024 election of Thailand’s 200-member Senate, Chairman Narong Klunwarin said Monday. They include 26 sitting senators and 36 candidates who voted in the Senate election.
None of those accused in the case includes ministers, political party executives or other administration officials.
At the center of the controversy is Thailand’s complex Senate selection system, in which the approved candidates vote among themselves.
Critics and some unidentified witnesses had alleged that votes in 2024 were coordinated and guided to elect a predetermined slate of candidates aligned with Anutin’s conservative Bhumjaithai Party. Investigators focused on allegations that candidates were recruited, instructed to vote in a coordinated manner, or received monetary compensation.
So many of the successful candidates had links to Anutin, the party or Newin Chidchob, the party’s power broker, that the upper chamber was given the nickname "Blue Senate” in a nod to the party’s color.
More than 400 people were involved in an initial joint probe conducted by election officials and the Department of Special Investigation of the Thai police, Narong said Friday. Anutin, 12 of his ministers and 138 senators were among those investigated, according to legal watchdog iLaw. A separate review panel set up by the commission, however, later voted to recommend dropping the cases, citing insufficient evidence.
Some witnesses implicated Newin, his son Chaichanok Chidchob, the Bhumjaithai Party’s secretary-general, and two ministers in the Prime Minister’s Office in organizing meetings among candidates, coordinating their votes and making payments, Narong said.
All denied the allegations, and the commission decided not to pursue action against them because there was insufficient evidence to corroborate the witnesses’ claims, he said.
A presentation at the briefing showed that witnesses had implicated 21 Bhumjaithai-linked politicians, including the party leader, though it did not name Anutin directly.
Anutin has also denied any involvement.
"From a political viewpoint, the few at the bottom are being sacrificed to save those at the top,” said Purawich Watanasukh, a political science lecturer at Thammasat University. "The issue has now been framed as a matter of individual wrongdoing rather than mass coordination.”
The Senate is a key political force in Thailand, with control over appointments to independent institutions that often determine the fate of politicians and parties, including approving judges for the Constitutional Court.
As well, four of the Election Commission’s current seven members were appointed by the Senate it’s investigating.
For Anutin, the episode risks adding further political pressure after a period of relative stability following his election in February.
Veteran protest leader Sondhi Limthongkul, whose mass demonstrations helped oust the government two decades ago, is now mobilizing supporters against Anutin’s administration over alleged corruption, political interference and its handling of foreign criminal networks.
Anutin also faces another legal test Sept. 28, when the Constitutional Court will rule on whether the use of barcodes and QR codes on ballots in February’s general election had violated the constitution, which could jeopardize the validity of his victory.
The Election Commission will submit the cases to the Supreme Court within 60 days. If the court accepts them for consideration, sitting senators could be suspended from their duties pending a ruling.
--With assistance from Cecilia Yap. -- ©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
