• 
• 

Published on December 24, 2007

Chairman Apichart Sukhagganond said so far the offences that had been reported to it did not warrant dissolution of any political party.

"Everyone here in the Election Commission is bold enough to give red cards if there are enough reasons to believe there is fraud," Apichart said.

He said the agency would perform its duty straightforwardly, adding there had been no pressure on it.

Sumeth Ubanisakorn, the election commissioner in charge of public participation, said the agency would from tomorrow start looking into the complaints for possible disqualification of candidates.

He said in constituencies with no complaints, the EC could endorse the election winners within seven days. The red cards could be issued before that, he added.

Somchai Juengprasert, another election commissioner, said that in addition to red cards, yellow cards would also be issued to call new voting in certain constituencies where fraud was suspected.

The disqualified election winners would also have to shoulder the cost of holding the new round of voting, he said.