Attention is turning to Monday’s Constitutional Court ruling on barcodes and QR codes on election ballots, with a former election commissioner outlining four possible outcomes, ranging from no change to a fresh general election.
The court is scheduled to read its ruling at 2pm on Monday. It accepted the case by a 6-3 majority on March 18 and has since heard evidence and examined ballot stubs, unused ballots, voter lists and other materials used in the Feb 8 election.
The case arose from complaints to the Ombudsman alleging that the codes could be used to identify voters and how they voted, potentially violating the constitutional principle of secret balloting.
Former Election Commission (EC) member Somchai Srisutthiyakorn outlined four possible outcomes in a Facebook post ahead of the ruling.
First, the court could find that the barcodes cannot be used to trace ballots to individual voters and that the ballots therefore do not violate the constitution. The election result would stand.
Second, it could find that party-list ballots can be traced to voters because each ballot number corresponds to a stub. Mr Somchai argued that voters’ identities could potentially be inferred by comparing the order in which they entered polling stations with ballots photographed during vote counting.
In that scenario, the court could find the ballot design unconstitutional but, if no actual harm can be established, instruct the EC to stop using the format without ordering a new vote.
Third, the court could rule the party-list ballots unconstitutional and order a fresh party-list vote. Fourth, it could find that the ballot design affected the election as a whole and order a new general election.
Meanwhile, former People’s Alliance for Democracy leader Sondhi Limthongkul said yesterday that even if the barcode case had a major political impact, or led to parliament’s dissolution and a new election, it might not resolve the problems he was concerned about.
Speaking during a protest outside EC headquarters, Sondhi said the broader issue was the political power structure and its links to oversight bodies and independent agencies. He argued that changing governments or holding another election would not address those concerns if existing power networks remained intact.
Sondhi made the remarks while leading supporters who submitted a petition urging the EC to investigate further alleged collusion in the 2024 Senate selection. Uniformed and plainclothes police were deployed around the EC office.
The group, calling itself “United Power of the Land: Take Thailand Back”, accused the EC of disregarding Supreme Court Election Cases Division precedents concerning structural, forensic and telephone-record evidence. It urged commissioners to review their decisions and pursue cases against all 229 people initially implicated in the investigation.
The group warned that it would take legal action against EC members if the agency failed to act. The EC has referred 77 of the 229 accused to the Supreme Court’s Election Cases Division.