FAKE DOCUMENTS ROW
Suthep accused of holding MP candidate against her wishes
Phaendin Thai Party member says she was kept for 'several' days
Democrat Party secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban stands accused of illegally detaining an MP candidate registered to contest the April 2 election. Thattima Pawalee, 39, who has entered the poll as a party-list MP for the small and little-known Phaendin Thai Party, yesterday filed charges against Suthep at the Crime Suppression Division. She told police she had been detained at Suthep's home in the southern province of Surat Thani for several days after being hired to help expose alleged irregularities in the MP candidacy registration process. Suthep would say nothing yesterday about the charge. Thattima said she had been taken to see Suthep and other leaders of the Democrat Party on March 20 and been told Phaendin Thai had used fake documents to register its candidates with the Election Commission. She was then hired by the Democrat Party to level allegations against the Thai Rak Thai Party of supporting small political parties to stand for the April 2 polls using counterfeit documents, she aid. "I was promised Bt1 million to do this, and an advance of Bt300,000 was paid. Then I was told to speak in front of a video-recorder and read a script prepared by Suthep," she said, adding that the script charged key figures in Thai Rak Thai of resorting to illegal means to help small parties field MP candidates. Given the Democrats' and two other former opposition parties' boycott of the polls, the Thai Rak Thai Party has been left as the only major party in the contest. Several small parties fielded candidates, but Suthep recently gave evidence to the Election Commission that counterfeit documents and other illegal means had been used by the Thai Rak Thai Party to help these small parties contest the election. Thattima told police another three MP candidates, from the Pattana Chat Thai party, had also been detained at Suthep's house. "In the recorded videotape, I mentioned the names of several senior Thai Rak Thai figures in connection with alleged irregularities in MP candidacy registration. I was compelled to do that. The allegations are not true," she said.
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