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Published on February 16, 2008

The Election Commission is likely to meet on Tuesday to decide on the electoral-fraud case against House Speaker Yongyuth Tiyapairat, its chairman Apichart Sukhakagganond said yesterday.

"This is an urgent matter and we have to be careful. But we will get the result within a week,'' he said.

Yongyuth, meanwhile, issued a statement denying his involvement in electoral fraud and claiming he was a victim of a frame-up.

The EC chairman said it would not summon Yongyuth for further investigation but only check whether there are any holes that need to be filled.

Election commissioner Prapan Naikowit said the EC's investigative panel headed by Suwit Theerapon was currently writing a result of the probe to submit to the EC within the next week.

The EC will seek a Supreme Court ruling if the accusation that Yongyuth committed electoral fraud has grounds. The EC will not question more witnesses because the Suwit panel has already questioned all necessary witnesses. "We will only consider the offence allegedly committed by Yongyuth and will not consider the issue of party [People Power] dissolution,'' he said.

He said the EC would decide on the case without any pressure, even though Yongyuth is House Speaker. "We have to be careful and check if the case is solid,'' he said.

Yongyuth's statement was yesterday read out by People Power Party deputy leader Kan Thiankaew.

"A group of ill-intentioned people are responsible for staging the fraud and leaking the findings of the investigative report in order to smear Yongyuth and People Power, as well as driving a wedge in society," Kan said, reading from the statement.

He said Yongyuth had already submitted his rebuttals to the Election Commission by providing evidence that none of the witnesses, who are kamnan, had implicated him in the vote-buying scam.

"It is not true that certain kamnan blamed Yongyuth for paying them and later recanted their statements, because none them had accused him in the first place," he said.

Yongyuth expressed confidence that the fairness of the EC would help him in overcoming his legal hurdle.

After reading the statement, Kan said he suspected that a chief investigator on the case had an ulterior motive to fabricate evidence.

He said he had known EC investigator Maj-General Chaiya Siriamphankul since he was a police cadet. Before reaching its conclusion on Yongyuth's involvement, the EC should examine two key issues - the political stand of Chaiya and the authenticity of the VCD, which Chaiya cites as key evidence to implicate Yongyuth - he said.

He claimed that Chaiya was

close to anti-Thaksin campaigner Sondhi Limthongkul and that the VCD had been doctored to frame Yongyuth.

Meanwhile, the People Power Party is ready to mount a rigorous defence for Yongyuth over the electoral-fraud charge, said Justice Minister Sompong Amornwiwat, who is a deputy party leader.

The party's legal adviser Yuenyat Jaisamut yesterday also insisted on his team's readiness to defend Yongyuth in court.

The Nation