An Election Commission adviser told the Constitution Court yesterday that the Democrat Party was not involved in "invalid" receipts related to Bt29 million given by the EC for election campaign ads.
He said Democrat Party did not acknowledge the issuing of false receipts. Moreover, the party's account had passed an accounting audit.
The EC filed a party-dissolution case against the Democrat Party, claiming it failed to spend some Bt29 million it received from the EC's Political Party Development Fund as indicated in its original proposal.
Yesterday saw the first hearing for witnesses presented by the Democrat Party. Prateep was the day's only witness.
Prateep is an EC adviser who was the chairman of an EC panel that investigated the case. He decided to suggest not filing a case against the party.
A representative of the attorney-general pointed to signatures by the Democrats approving copies of the receipts. But these, Prateep said, were only approval for copies of receipts and did not mean the party acknowledged they were invalid receipts.
Attorney-general's representative Kittinan Thatpramook also said the accounts auditor verified only the documents and figures as presented by the Democrats but did not look into debt obligations. He also pointed out that the budget the party gave to the Magnet Signs company to produce the campaign boards was Bt4 million but the receipts showed only Bt2.03 million.
Magnet Signs executive Wasinee Thongjua told the court previously that her firm, which subcontracted other companies to produce the boards, did not issue receipts for the party initially. They were issued retroactively.
Prateep said he believed the party had no corrupt intent. It used the funds received from the EC for the poll campaign boards and the boards were actually produced.
However, Prateep conceded he checked only key elements of receipts and reports and had not looked into smaller details.
Other witnesses, Issara Limsiriwong, chairman of another EC investigation panel, and Komsan Pokong, a former charter drafter, asked for hearing of their evidence to be postponed. They are now due to testify to the court on October 11.
In response to a request by lawyers for the Democrats for permission for Department of Special Investigation chief Tharit Pengdit to testify, the court said Tharit could submit written testimony.
The court said it would not allow hearings to be extended. The last hearing has been scheduled for October 18.