A monk sprinkles holy water on Election Commission chairman Vasana Puemlarp yesterday to mark the ninth anniversary of the commission’s formation and to dispel bad luck.

"The EC is acting suspiciously by refusing to draw any conclusion for or against the ruling party," OAG spokesman Atthaphol Yaisawang said.

The EC may have an ulterior motive aimed at forcing prosecutors to react in a certain way so as to derail the case against the ruling party, Atthaphol said. He was responding to statements made at a press conference on Wednesday at which the EC insisted it was open and above board in dealing with the ruling party.

Also yesterday, the Criminal Court accepted allegations of abuse of power filed against the election commissioners by Democrat Party secretary-general Suthep Thuagsuban. The EC forwarded the Nam Yimyaem report to the OAG on Tuesday without attaching its recommendation for prosecution.

The report found cause to suspect the ruling party of rigging party membership records for small parties to overcome the 90-day rule on candidacy registration and for funding two small parties to contest the April 2 election.

Atthaphol said the EC had broken with its precedents on the handling of party dissolution cases.

In May, the EC recommended prosecutors seek the disbanding of the Progressive Democratic Party after concluding there were reasons to believe it had rigged its records to get around the 90-day membership rule, he said.

On Tuesday, the EC asked prosecutors to begin proceedings to disband two other small parties, Thai Ground and Pattana Chart Thai, over election violations that linked them with Thai Rak Thai, he said. But he noted the commission had decided to leave the final decision on the fate of Thai Rak Thai to prosecutors.

Atthaphol said he suspected the EC might want prosecutors to return the Nam report in order to take control of the case.

He said prosecutors would decide by next Friday on how to proceed.

They may gather additional evidence if deemed necessary and then petition for a Constitution Court review, he said.

Or they may ask the EC for an additional report with a conclusion on the Nam report, he said.

The final option is to send the Nam report back to the EC to review whether to recommend prosecution, he said. But this was unlikely to happen as the EC could then exercise its discretion to form a joint panel with prosecutors (within 30 days) before manoeuvring to gain control and dropping the charges, he said.

Should prosecutors opt to try members of the ruling party, it was likely any trials would be over before candidates were required to register for the next election, eliminating uncertainties that could complicate the ballot, he said.

On Tuesday, EC chairman Vasana Puemlarp said he would make a conclusion on the Nam report if the OAG sent it back.

He insisted he was not obliged to make any recommendation before getting the report back from the OAG.

EC official Siripong Pongpanit said prosecutors were in charge of recommending prosecution on charges like funding of small parties.

The EC's job was to make recommendations on certain charges such as falsifying party membership records, he said.

Yesterday, the EC organised a merit-making ceremony to celebrate its eighth anniversary. Many viewed it as an attempt to drive away a string of bad luck plaguing its office.

Kesinee Taengkhieo,

Atthayuth Butrsripoom

The Nation