Yongyuth guilty under the Criminal Code : EC member

Somchai was the only one with the dissenting opinion on the Tuesday's ruling to try Yongyuth for electoral fraud. He said Yongyuth should not be prosecuted for votebuying, an offence under the election laws but for bribing state officials, a breach of the Criminal Code.

In the majority opinion, the three EC members found cause to suspect Yongyuth's involvement in votebuying in Chiang Rai as partylist candidate of the People Power Party for Zone 1 covering the Upper Northern Region.

The three are Apichart Sukhagganond, Prapun Naigowit and Sumeth Upanisakorn.

The other EC member Sodsri Satayatham abstained on grounds that the two investigative reports on campaign violations involving Yongyuth should have been combined before the EC ruled on the matter.

The majority, including Somchai, disagreed and decided to proceed withough waiting for the completion of another report relating to the accusation against Yongyuth filed by General Somjet Boonthanom, head of the Secratriat of the Council for National Security.

In the investigative report prepared by the Suvit Theerapong panel, Yongyuth was charged for paying a group of nine kamnan and village headmen in exchange for votes.

Somchai said from the report, he had no doubts that Yongyuth distributed money to local officials, seen as his loyal canvassers.

"I think these officials definitely broke the law because they failed to maintain the political neutrality but I don't view Yongyuth's payments as votebuying but bribing which is a more serious offence," he said.

He argued that the payments happened before Yongyuth registered his candidacy, therefore it is a legal grey area whether the election laws would be applicable in this case. He said charges against Yongyuth should be under the Criminal Code instead of targeting him for campaign violations.

The Nation