In late July, it ordered the deputy governors be transferred to ensure the maintenance of the electoral neutrality of provincial authorities, and it urged other officials who felt that their impartiality could not be maintained to apply for transfers, Deputy Interior Minister Anek went one step further at a meeting with ministry officials in the Northeast, when he called on those who "lacked the guts" to stand up to pressure of being influenced, to go on leave. The Ministry also announced that it would place under special scrutiny certain provinces where vote buying was known to be rife. on 13 August it began a series of instructional meetings on election policy for the country’s 65,000 kamnan and village headmen Yet the efficacy of such meetings was questionable without lower-level support from officials. for example, in late August villagers in ChiagMai reported that a kamnan named "Torn" had received B and had asked them to vote for a particular candidate. The district officer refused to investigate the complaint because there was no kamnan named "Torn" the in area, although there was one named