• 
• 

Published on November 6, 2007

 Deputy Prime Minister Sonthi Boonyaratglin threatened yesterday to sue the People Power Party for making false allegations that soldiers pointed a gun at the head of one of its canvassers in Amnat Charoen last week.

"I have just received confirmation that the PPP's allegation is not true, and the party might face a lawsuit as a consequence," he said.

Sonthi said the PPP was free to campaign, so long as it refrained from committing offences such as vote buying. Authorities would not interfere with any campaign activities.

Sonthi said he received a report from a panel probing the allegation, and the Second Army Region commander also confirmed no such incident occurred. "The allegation was made with intent to seek political interest,'' he said.

Sonthi also denied the panel he chairs to suppress vote buying interfered with the work of the Election Commission.

He said the EC proposed during one of its meetings that his panel provide military reinforcements to suppress vote buying, since the EC only had a vote-buying prevention mechanism.

"Given that the EC is in charge of vote-buying suppression, if the EC wants us to do the suppression work, we have to further discuss the matter under the EC's terms,'' he said.

Sonthi also alluded to fear among political parties, especially People Power, his panel intended to block the party from winning the election. "If they do not buy votes, they do not need to fear anything,'' he said.

Army chief General Anupong Paochinda dismissed the allegation that soldiers had threatened to shoot a People Power campaign worker in Amnat Charoen on Friday.

"The Second Army Region has confirmed that no soldiers nor armed personnel wielded any weapons at the alleged scene, as claimed by the PPP."

Anupong said the military would not interfere with campaigning and that soldiers in the Northeast were deployed to tackle security-related problems such as drug trafficking and cross-border smuggling.

PPP candidate Chaisri Kila filed a complaint that his aide Sombat Wanthong was threatened with a rifle during a search at a military checkpoint set up on the route back home from a late-night campaign meeting.

Provincial police found no evidence to back up the claim.

 The Nation