Court rejects a trial against EC
The Criminal Court cited a legal technicality on Monday in declining to launch a judicial review of the Election Commission (EC)'s decision to allow additional candidates to run in the repeat vote on April 23.
A group of nine Surat Thani residents accused the EC of malfeasance, saying it failed to review a petition filed by the Democrat Party opposing the registration of additional candidates. The petition argued it was unlawful to allow candidates defeated in the first round of balloting on April 2 to switch constituencies and contest the repeat vote. The court ruled that the organic election law empowered the EC to set its own pace in reviewing the petition. Unlike alleged campaign violations, the EC was not obliged to launch an immediate review in a candidacy dispute, it said. Therefore, there is no cause to suspect wrongdoing before the EC has a chance to rule on the petition in question, it said. Last month, the court ruled the EC should stand trial for malfeasance relating to the registration of additional candidates. The case was filed by Democrat Party deputy secretary general Thaworn Senniam, who directly questioned the procedures leading to the additional candidacy registrations. The Nation
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