Donors desert Thai Rak Thai
Noppadol Pattama, legal adviser to Thaksin Shinawatra, prepares to address a press conference yesterday to defend a land purchase by the deposed premier’s wife, Khunying Pojaman Shinawatra. He also confirmed that Thaksin was on vacation in the Chinese cap
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Donations to the Democrat Party rose steeply before the September 19 coup, but those to the Thai Rak Thai Party dropped, the Election Commission revealed yesterday.
The Democrats received donations totalling Bt21 million in September, compared with Bt1 million in August. Thai Rak Thai received donations of only Bt120,000 in September, down on Bt603,340 received in August. The Democrats' donors included Potipong Lamsam, a businessman and senior party member, who gave Bt10 million; party deputy secretary-general Korn Chatikavanich, who donated Bt5 million; and party member Prakorb Jirakiti, who gave Bt5 million. Whereas most donations to the Thai Rak Thai Party in earlier months have been subsidies from the Shinawatra family, the family's largesse was absent in September. Thai Rak Thai's main donors were key party members Chaiyis Sasom-sap and Pongsak Ruktapongpisal. Despite September's figures, donations to the Thai Rak Thai Party between January 1 and September 30 have totalled Bt131.3 million, with the Democrat Party receiving Bt68 million in the same period.
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