The Disease Control Department has been consulting with the Election Commission about how to enable voters infected with COVID-19 to cast their ballots in the May 22nd Bangkok gubernatorial and councillor elections safely.

Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said today (Thursday) that infected voters have the right to cast their ballot as a matter of principle and the fact that they are infected should not deprive them of such a right if they want to exercise it.

So the question is how to arrange for them to vote in a way which is safe for those who are not infected, said the minister, adding that special polling booths may be arranged exclusively for infected voters and that the infected may have to wear two face masks.

The highly anticipated May 22nd gubernatorial election in Bangkok will be the first such election in nine years, while the city councillor election will be the capital’s first in 12 years.

The May elections, will, however, not be the first with COVID measures in place, as there have been several by-elections and nationwide local elections during the pandemic, whereby those suspected of infection were separated but not barred from casting their votes.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service