Election Inspectors: Lessons Learned from Election Monitoring

Abstract

      The post of election inspector is a new election innovation proposed by the Constitution Drafting Commission to replace the Provincial Election Commission in monitoring officers and monitoring actions deemed to be fraudulent or violation of election laws. This article aims to study the lessons learned from the work of the provincial election inspectors, focusing on the general election on 24 March 2019 and present lessons learned from election monitoring along with appropriate recommendations for monitoring elections, Information was drawn from study of documentation, in-depth interviews with provincial election inspectors in each region and the author’s experience.
      The results showed that provincial election inspectors were able to work independently but non-contributing team member, not precisely in the electoral law, role ambiguity, no result appear in their job of preventing electoral fraud, conflict with a coworker. If election inspectors came from outside their assigned provinces, they did not know the people in the area.
      Provincial election Inspectors are important in election monitoring because their reports provide credible information for the Election Commission of Thailand to use when deciding to announce election results.Provincial election inspectors guarantee transparency and provide warning signals of actions deemed to be fraudulent or in violation of election law.
      This paper suggests that the Election Inspectors must learn to contribute as team members, must possess knowledge and expertise in electoral laws, role clarity and materiality in monitoring, practice observation and skepticism, use reative conflict management, have competency to know the people in the area and provide fair performance appraisals.