PAD, students call for resignations
Students protest outside the Election Commission office yesterday.
|
|
The People's Alliance for Democracy aims to collect 50,000 signatures in the South seeking the impeachment of the Election Commission, while students from four universities have called on EC members to resign.
PAD deputy spokesman in the South, Ekkachai Isarata, said yesterday the group would seek 50,000 names in 14 southern provinces. It would then demand impeachment action be commenced against the commission for alleged violations of the Constitution. Prince of Songkhla University lecturer Kriengsak Liewjanpattana will spearhead the petition. Signature gathering starts on Saturday, Ekkachai said. Meanwhile, in Bangkok, PAD coordinator Suriyasai Katasila said group leaders would meet tomorrow to discuss measures against the EC, including a possible mass rally to oust the commissioners. In a related development, at the October 1973 Memorial on Rajdamnoen Avenue, Kotchawan Chaiyabut, a Chulalongkorn University student and secretary-general of the Student Federation of Thailand, announced that the SFT and other student groups want all EC members to quit. The federations called on the commissioners to resign, in light of the Constitution Court's ruling the EC managed the April 2 poll in an illegal and unfair fashion. Student federation members will gather outside EC headquarters today to explain their position. The student groups will distribute posters and fliers demanding the ouster of the allegedly biased EC and calling for a "free and fair" election watchdog. At the EC office yesterday, about 80 supporters of the agency gathered to offer moral support to the commissioners. Some of them strongly criticised the former opposition parties which skipped yesterday's meeting on the election date, and the press organisations which have presented negative news about the EC.
|
