Monkeys destroy voter lists at Thai polling place

TAMBON YANYAO, Thailand, July 26 (UPI) -- A gang of 100 monkeys paid a visit to a polling place in Thailand and destroyed several pages of voter lists and other documents, police said.

Lt. Col. Banchob Uthayo of the Tambon Yanyao police station led a group of officers Sunday to the polling place inside a temple in Tambon Yanyao, Phichit Province, where they discovered five of the 15 pages of voter lists were destroyed or damaged, while seven pages of a 10-page notice bearing voting instructions were also destroyed.

Witnesses told the police officers, who were accompanied by village head Chatchaval Suksawat, the vandalism had been carried out by a group of about 100 pig-tailed macaques that have been living in the bushes around the temple.

Police chased the remaining monkeys from the polling place into some nearby trees.

Chatchaval said the lists would be replaced and the polling place would be secured to prevent further incursions from the democracy-interrupting simians.

The incident was reported to the provincial Election Commission and the National Police Office, officials said.