TPI Polene "did not give Democrats case" om 2005 : Executives

Prachai Leophairatana and other executives of TPI Polene yesterday denied that the company had secretly donated Bt250 million to the Democrat Party in 2005.

Prachai described the allegation as "a lie and a deception".

The co-founder and leader of the Matchima Thipataya Party said the Bt250 million in question had been for an advertising project for TPI Polene.

He also insisted that he had never stated that the company had made the donation to the Democrat Party, which was then in opposition.

Senior executives of TPI Polene yesterday called a press conference to rebuff the allegation that the company had given so large an amount to the Democrats. They confirmed Prachai's assertion that the money had been for a PR project.

Democrat MP Theptai Senpong, who also acts as the party leader's spokesman, said yesterday he had never heard anything about the alleged donation even though he had served in the party's executive board in 2005.

He described as a "political farce" the claim by Pheu Thai senior adviser MP Chalerm Yoobamrung.

Theptai said the attempt to link the controversy to Supatcharee Thammaphet, new Democrat MP for Phatthalung, was also unconvincing as she had been an employee of an advertising company many years before and had had nothing to do with the Democrat Party at that time.

The advertising firm, Messiah Business & Creation, was said to have obtained the Bt250 million from Prachai.

Supatcharee, daughter of former Democrat MP Supat Thammaphet, said yesterday that the company had been registered in 2003 and that she had become one of its directors when she was a student trainee. She added, however, that she had resigned in the following year and therefore had had nothing to do with the alleged 2005 donation.

The MP said that she was confident of being able to disprove the allegation. She expressed wonder that the opposition would play up the matter in order to have the Democrat Party dissolved by court order.

"The [advertising] company has nothing to do with the party, and I quit the company before I became an MP," she said.

Meanwhile, a source in the Pheu Thai Party said yesterday that Chalerm was trying to persuade a senior executive of the advertising firm to become a key witness in his move against the Democrat Party. When reached by The Nation yesterday, the executive in question said: "It has nothing to do with me."