Bangkok Post – Court asked to suspend Senate decision

A former Senate candidate on Monday asked the Supreme Administrative Court to suspend the announcement of the Senate election results until a decision is made on the electoral office’s handling of the Senate race.

In a petition, Jaturan Boonbenjarat, also secretary general of the Clean Politics group, accused the Electoral Commission (EC) of dereliction of duty in verifying the qualifications of Senate candidates, which could undermine the integrity of the electoral process.

Mr Jaturan urged the court to hold an urgent hearing to consider suspending the EC’s declaration of the Senate election result until the qualifications of the 200 elected senators and the 100 others on the reserve list have been thoroughly verified.

The EC is expected to announce the election results today or tomorrow.

He alleged that the Senate election process was manipulated by political groups and interest groups because several candidates made false statements about their professional backgrounds.

Mr Jaturan stressed that he had no malicious intention to have the Senate election declared invalid. He simply wanted the Election Commission to conduct a thorough investigation into the qualifications of the winners.

“Several people have reported irregularities,” he said. “I am concerned that some of these elected senators are not qualified to do the job and may be influenced by vested interests. That is why I have asked the court to hold an urgent hearing before the outcome is announced.”

He said he did not agree with and did not trust the “approve first, disqualify later” approach advocated by the EU Commission.

In addition, former Senate candidates led by Police Lieutenants Khamrop Panyakaew and Chakkrapong Khongpanya petitioned the EC to delay the announcement of the election results until a detailed investigation had been conducted.

Panich Charoenphao, a former candidate who contested in Bang Pa-in district of Autthaya, also urged the EC to disqualify one of the winners in Occupational Group 7 (workers) for allegedly making false statements about his qualifications.

In total, the 200 elected senators were selected from 20 professional groups, ten from each group.

He said he had documents supporting his allegations against the person and had handed them over to the EC for investigation. He also threatened to sue the EC for abuse of office if it refused to investigate the case.