Party dissolution threats, charter amendments among top EC tasks
Play
The Election Commission and the Constitution Court are destined to make key decisions in this new year that could rewrite the political landscape.
The EC is also facing 468 fraud complaints arising from the July general election that it has to consider within the legal time frame of one year. EC chairman Apichart Sukhagganond said yesterday that he expected many of the cases to be dropped because of a lack of evidence and that fewer than half of them would be forwarded to the court.
The high-profile cases before the EC could end up in the dissolution of the country’s major political parties. Political activist Chaiwat Sinsuwong has accused the Pheu Thai, Democrat, Bhum Jai Thai, Chart Thai Pattana, Chart Pattana Puea Pandin, and Palang Chon parties of allowing banned politicians to wield influence over their executive boards.
The two largest parties – Democrat and Pheu Thai – also face separate petitions for dissolution. The Democrat Party is accused of allowing banned politicians to get involved with amending the Constitution, while Pheu Thai is accused of allowing banned politician Thaksin Shinawatra to influence its election campaign, with the slogan “Thaksin Thinks and Pheu Thai Acts”.
Those cases are likely to lead to a new round of political conflict.
The EC has to organise polls for more than 3,000 local administration organisations all over the country, many of which involve the election of the mayor.
The EC will also highly likely hold a public referendum on amending the Constitution this year. However, the independent organisation has expressed its readiness to take up the task that it accomplished before on the current charter.
Last year the Constitution Court faced a severe crisis of confidence when Pasit Sakdanarong, the secretary to court president Chut Chonlavorn, was accused of secretly taping conversations of the court’s judges dealing with a dissolution case against the Democrat Party. The scandal led to the dismissal of the secretary and the filing of criminal charges against him, and eventually to the resignation of his boss.
Under the leadership of new president Justice Wasant Soypisut, the Constitution Court must try hard to restore public trust while also passing judgement on at least two critical cases this year.
It will consider the MP status of Jatuporn Promphan from the Pheu Thai Party, who is also a red-shirt leader. The EC last year filed his case with the court after deciding he was ineligible by failing to cast his ballot in the July 3 election. Jatuporn at that time was remanded on criminal charges in connection with the political unrest and riots in 2010. The court trial in Jatuporn’s case is likely to be held under pressure from the red shirts.
The court also is due to rule on election-fraud charges against Boonjong Wongtrairat, a deputy leader of the opposition Bhum Jai Thai Party, involving the December 2010 by-election in Nakhon Ratchasima.
The EC had disqualified Boonjong, and the Supreme Court’s Division on Electoral Cases is expected to decide soon whether to confirm the EC’s decision. If the EC’s decision stands, the Constitution Court is likely to order Boonjong’s Bhum Jai Thai Party to be disbanded because he was a party executive at the time of the alleged offence.
