On 31 March 2019 at 22.30, two men in black clothes on a motorcycle assaulted Anurak 'Ford' Jeantawanich, the leader of a protest to impeach the Election Commission of Thailand (ECT). Ekkachai's car was also torched, damaging documents with signatures to impeach the ECT.
According to Anurak's Facebook post, he was hit with a large stick in his house and his left arm was injured. The perpetrators ran away after people shouted for help:
"I was injured at night after I came back from the protest to collect signatures to impeach the ECT. When I arrived home at around 21.45 by taxi, the two perpetrators in black clothes and motorcycle helmets parked a motorcycle in front my house. One of them ran into my house with a large stick to assault me. I fought to protect myself. I took the stick from him and hit him until the stick broke in two halves. The perpetrators ran away when people shouted for help. The evidence is the giant stick I hold. I was bleeding from my arm, nothing more. I already called 191 for the police."
Ekkachai Hongkangwan, the activist who is also campaigning to impeach the ECT and who has been assaulted 6 times, also reported that his car was torched for the second time. He said that 200-300 documents in the car with impeachment signatures were damaged, but they are still good enough for submission.
“Yesterday (31 March 2019), I and Anurak Jeantawanich co-organised a campaign to impeach the ECT with 200-300 people who gave their signatures. Last night, I did not take these documents out of my car, but my car was torched. The documents were partially burned and then soaked as a result of an attempt to extinguish the fire. Now I am trying to dry these documents. Even though they are not in good condition, they are readable. So, I have decided to continue using these documents.”
Anurak Jeantawanich also posted on Facebook that the sound amplifier in the car used in the campaign to impeach ECT was damaged.
On Sunday (31 March) Bangkok saw 2 protests at the Victory Monument and Ratchaprasong. The ECT report on voter turnout was adjusted from 65.96% after 90% of the votes counted, to 74.69% at 100%. The complete but unofficial result favours Palang Pracharat as its vote increased by 500k from 7.9 million to 8.4 million. The campaign aims to collect 1 million signatures to impeach the ECT for its failure to produce reliable election results.
