Following widespread accusations of irregularities, the Thai election authority (Election Commission of Thailand) has announced its intention to recount votes and organise fresh elections in certain polling units in the country. This comes after the Authority’s inability to determine a winner at the recently concluded general elections held in Thailand.

The Commission’s Deputy Secretary-General, Sawaeng Boonmee, announced this new turn of events in a statement provided to the press, where he stated that the commission had ordered a recount for two polling stations, as well as new elections in six polling stations, as a result of the voters recorded not matching number of ballots during the election.

Boonmee, further disclosed that the new date for voting will be announced shortly, and will likely take place after Thailand’s New Year’s holiday in mid-April.

The elections are the first to take place in the Asian country since a military coup which occurred in 2014.

Criticisms have been made on the heavy militarisation of the polls and party politics too, as only parties affiliated to the country’s military, seem to have made any headway in the elections. A clear example can be seen in the Palang Pracharant’s alleged success based on the preliminary results presented by the commission.

While the commission claims to be in the dark on the winner, for now, it previously revealed that Palang Pracharant received 7 million votes, while Pheu Thai recorded 6.6 million votes.

Concerning whether or not the recounts for the polling stations would have a serious effect on the results of the election, Boonmee stated that while that was unlikely, there is a strong possibility that it might affect the number of party-list seats, “because we don’t know who has how many votes yet.”

A preliminary result was released by the commission on Thursday.  However, the main result will not be announced until May 9.