Self-selecting!
Re: “Clarity on Senate poll rules expected today”, ( BP, June 7 ).
On a recent Sunday morning in the province of Nan, 98 intrepid citizens over the age of 40 began their self-selecting quest to become members of the new 200-seat Senate. They have each paid 2,500 baht, about seven times the daily minimum wage, to register in one of 20 professional or identity groups in one of the 15 districts comprising Nan.
To have been just one candidate in each of the 20 categories in each of the 15 districts, we would have needed 300 candidates, but since there are only 98 candidates, meaning an average of just over six per district, and since they will not be spread evenly across the 20 categories and 15 districts, it is highly likely there will be some districts and many categories with no candidates at all.
Then the self-selecting fun began. First with intra-group voting in which all the candidates within each group in each district vote among themselves, each having up to two votes. You could vote for yourself, but only once, and the top five candidates from each group, in each district, then advance to the inter-group vote, in which all the groups in each district are randomly arranged into divisions, each division having three to five groups. At this stage, the remaining candidates cast one vote for another candidate in each of the groups in their division, and the top three candidates in each group advance to the provincial round of self-selection on June 16.
On that day, the same intra-group and inter-group voting will take place before moving on to repeat the process at the national level on June 26.
Imagine what a busy Sunday this would be indeed for our beloved Election Commission with this self-selecting process being carried out across 20 professional and identity groups in 928 districts in 76 provinces.
SAD OPTIMIST
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