Published on November 08, 2005

Civic groups said yesterday that they would name Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra as a defendant in their abuse-of power-suit challenging the government’s bid to list state-owned Egat Plc on the stock market.

The filing of the suit on the Egat case was delayed until today in order to revise the list of defendants to include Thaksin, Campaign for Popular Democracy secretary-general Suriyasai Katasila said yesterday.

Suriyasai and other civic leaders had earlier said they would lodge the suit with the Administrative Court yesterday.

However, Rosana Tositrakul, a key activist behind the move, said they were informed by the court that they could not file the lawsuit against the PM’s Office or the Energy Ministry.

“We have to revise the names of the defendants to include Prime Minister Thaksin and Energy Minister Viset Choopiban. We’ll file it again [today],” Rosana said.

The litigation targets Thaksin and the Cabinet and seeks to cancel two executive decrees enacted to pave way for the listing of Egat later this month.

Viset said yesterday that the listing was backed by the law on state-enterprise funding. “I would like to clarify the allegation that after the listing Egat will maintain its privileges. That’s not true as the power will be passed on to the regulatory body, which will be chaired by the energy permanent secretary.”

The complainants contend that Thaksin and the relevant agencies have failed to safeguard the public interest in rushing to privatise the country’s largest power supplier.

Despite the lawsuit, Energy Permanent Secretary Cherd-phong Sirivit insisted Egat’s initial public offering would go ahead as planned.

“All are free to file charges for the causes they deem fit, but the ministry is proceeding in accordance with government policy,” he said.

Cherdphong said the ministry had no further comment on the issue, unless the Administrative Court orders a freeze on the IPO.

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