Very soon there will be elections to vote for a new mayor, this coming 23rd December, 2102.
A strange day in Western eyes, in the middle of peak season, especially considering that the night of the 22nd it won't be allowed to serve alcohol in bars and they will have to be closed. A strange loophole in this law does however allow restaurants to serve alcohol during the days leading up to an election.
Some of the registered people for the upcoming election
By law, elections should be arranged in a specific period of time which can be extended, but only on a basis of necessity and the peak time for tourism does not seem to be a necessity in the eyes of law. Hence, elections on 23rd December.
An interesting map of Samui, dividing the island up in districts for the elections
It's going to be an interesting election and I can only hope that the current mayor will be voted into office again, since he did a very good job the past 4 years and worked hard to improve the infrastructure around the island.
Don't forget to use my Camille's Samui hotel recommendation blog and my Camille's Thailand hotel recommendation blog for all your hotel bookings on Koh Samui and around Thailand. By doing so, you will support my blog. Thanks folks!
Camille
2 comments:
Since you are much closer with the local politics on the island, maybe you can explain a little oddity. When looking at the candidate names for the Mayor post, both the incumbent mayor Ramnet Jaikwang (นายรามเนตร ใจกว้าง) with number 2 as well as a Ruengnam Jaikwang (นายเรืองนาม ใจกว้าง) with number 3 are candidates. I guess the two are related, so it looks strange to have two relatives contesting for the office - normally relatives (try to) take over when a local politician dies, retires or moves into national politics.
by the way, actually the election is already delayed. The previous council and mayor term ended on September 13, thus the election should have been no later than October 28. But since the town was upgraded to a city effective September 14 and new constituencies had to be drawn, the Election Commission had to extend the time without an elected administration until those were ready.
Hi Andreas,
Thanks for your post, as always, a very informative and expert contribution.
Regarding the two brothers, I only know that the incumbents mayor brother was kind of his right hand during his 4 years in office and he represented him during many official events. I didn't know he also ran for office now.
Interesting to know and understand about the delay of these elections.
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