EC gives TRT winner more time

Published on February 10, 2005

Winning Thai Rak Thai candidate Kusumawatee Sirikomut, from Maha Sarakham, yesterday requested and received more time to prepare her statement for the Election Commission in regard to alleged campaign violations.

The postponement was granted after the Thai Rak Thai Party asked for more time to prepare its information.

“The EC committee decided last night and called Kusumawatee today. How can we prepare?” said Sukhumpong Nhongkham, a legal representative for Thai Rak Thai.

The commission will hear Kusumawatee’s statement on February 15.

She is accused of making campaign speeches that broke election law while campaigning in Constituency 5.

Her Chat Thai rival Prayuth Siripanich filed a complaint and submitted a video CD recording of her campaign appearances as evidence.

Speaking in her defence, the winning candidate said she needed time to prove that the CD was doctored.

Thai Rak Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra, meanwhile, has launched a party inquiry into the alleged burning of ballots in Angthong’s Constituency 2.

Thaksin said he suspected a possible link between the destruction of the ballots and his party’s defeat in the constituency.

“I personally led the campaign rally in Angthong and found voters to be very enthusiastic about my party,” he said. “Then my party lost, which coincided with the discovery of burnt ballots, thousands of which were my party’s number nine.”

Winning candidate Somsak Prissananathakul from the Chat Thai Party said he would not comment on the issue before the completion of the police investigation.

“I don’t want to quarrel with Thaksin and I trust that authorities will solve the case soon,” he said.

Chiang Mai balloting director Wichan Somsak said his office would rule within a week on whether election officials had fixed the outcome of vote tallying in that province’s Constituency 5.

The ruling was prompted by a petition from Democrat candidate Pongprayoon Rat-apai, who complained that election officials had tampered with a number of ballots while tallying votes.

Election Commission member Prinya Nakchudtree said he had seen a videotape of vote counting in Chiang Mai and remained convinced that there was no foul play.

“Pending the official ruling on the issue, I still don’t believe any election officials could fix the balloting outcome,” he said.

Prinya said observers from political parties should have protested any suspected misconduct while the tallying was in progress, instead of complaining afterwards.

Three losing candidates from the Democrat and Chat Thai parties submitted evidence on campaign violations to the Election Commission in Bangkok after their provincial election officials refused to investigate.

The three are Democrat Sathit Pitudecha from Rayong’s Constituency 1, Chat Thai’s Kriangkrai Phumlaojaeng from Kalasin’s Constituency 2, and another Democrat, Yuthapong Jarassathien, from Maha Sarakham’s Constituency 3.

Sathit said he had witnesses testifying that they were paid Bt300 in exchange for each vote. He alleged the payments had been made by a vote canvasser working on behalf of winning Thai Rak Thai candidate Yongyos Arunwesseth.

Kriangkrai submitted a CD recording of four statements concerning vote-buying in his constituency.

Yuthapong petitioned for an investigation as to why the number of ballots for constituency voting differed from those for party-list voting. He said party-list ballots fell short of those printed for constituency voting by two ballots.

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