BANGKOK — Like the protesters trying to overthrow the Thai government, Somchai Srisutthiyakorn says he is against holding elections next month and does not think they will help resolve the country’s increasingly violent political turmoil.
But Mr. Somchai is not a protester. He is one of five members of the country’s Election Commission whose mission, according to Thai law, is to arrange, provide support for and promote elections.
“The Election Commission must arrange elections,” Mr. Somchai said in an interview this week. “But we must be sure the election benefits society.”
Mr. Somchai said that he and the other commissioners were in agreement: They did not oppose elections but wanted them held at an unspecified “suitable time.”
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Mr. Somchai’s lack of enthusiasm for the Feb. 2 elections, which were endorsed by royal decree last month when the government dissolved Parliament, underlines the depth of divisions in Thai society after two months of debilitating protests in Bangkok.
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Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, a member of the Election Commission, says he does not think a vote will do anything to resolve the political turmoil. Thomas Fuller/The New York Times
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