The Constitutional Court of Thailand issued a notice on the 26th announcing the opening of a hearing on the petition regarding the unconstitutional printing of bar codes on the votes for the parliamentary lower house election in February this year, and is set to make a ruling on the case on September 28th.
The Constitutional Court said it summoned five people, including staff members of the election committee, for questioning on the same day. On September 27, the judge will visit the site where the ballots were deposited for a field inspection. The court will vote and announce the verdict on September 28.
The Constitutional Court issued a notice in March this year, announcing that it has received a petition filed by the Thailand Overwatch Commission on the unconstitutionality of ballot bar codes. The Overwatch Commission appealed to the Constitutional Court to make a judicial decision under Article 213 of the Constitution, as the election-related authorities designed and printed ballots with bar codes and QR codes during the process of organizing the parliamentary lower house elections held on February 8, 2026. This move may lead to voter identity and voting results being tracked, resulting in elections not conforming to the rules of anonymous voting.
According to Thai media reports, if the constitutional court ultimately ruled that ballots printed with bar codes and QR codes violate the constitutional rule of anonymous voting, the case could escalate from a technical issue of ballots to a legal issue of the parliamentary lower house elections in February this year.