EC to meet political parties next week
The Election Commission will next Wednesday hold a meeting with all the 44 registered political parties to gather their opinions on drafting of a new constitution, EC member Sodsri Satayatham said Monday.
She said that she believed no political parties would try to interfere with the referendum process for the draft charter, as had been feared, because all of them would want to see an early general election. Sodsri said the EC also would ask the political parties to supply it with updated information as certain important data involving party candidates were unlawfully altered by some corrupt EC officials during last April's general election. The election commissioner said the EC also would discuss with the party representatives about return of campaign subsidies to the agency. The money was given to the parties contesting the April 2 election and had to be returned after the polls were invalidated by courts. Sodsri said that Democrat and Thai Rak Thai parties had returned the money but 14 others had yet to do so. "Some political parties have been dissolved but they have been unable to close their budget accounts and there are some cases involved in court proceeding," she said. The Nation
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