Legal Issues in the Adjudication of Local Election Cases

Abstract

The 2017 Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand provides for the courts to provide a balance by examining the legitimacy of the Election Commission’s exercise of power, which allows the consideration of election cases to proceed in line with political events. However, to truly achieve legitimacy, it should not only consider granting power to independent organizations and giving importance to the trial process in the hope of punishing them. On the contrary, the rights of individuals accused of violating election laws must also be taken into account.

This article aims to study that even though the law granting judicial power to the Election Commission aims to make consideration and adjudication of election cases faster and more timely, the provision of such power cannot be reviewed because the result of the decision is final. This includes the consideration and judgment of the case by the court of justice, where the law stipulates that the decision is final for a single court, making it impossible to review the judgment according to the principle of two courts. Therefore, the power to adjudicate election cases should be specified to belong to the court of justice (the election court) and the judgment can be reviewed as well.