Decision on Jatuporn's MP status next month
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The Constitution Court would on May 18 decide on the MP status of red-shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan.
The Election Commission had investigated a complaint and found that Jatuporn was not a member of the Pheu Thai Party for 90 consecutive days before election day, as required by Articles 106(4) and 101(3) of the Constitution.
The EC cited his failure to vote in last year’s July 3 general election and that cost him his party membership.
The EC then sought his disqualification as an MP by the Constitution Court by forwarding the case to the House speaker.
Jatuporn, who was elected as a candidate on the party list, had argued that he could not go to the polling station to vote because he was under police custody and his request to leave prison to cast his ballot was rejected by a court. The red-shirt leader was detained in connection with the political unrest in 2010.
Jatuporn yesterday went to the Constitution Court to hear the scheduling of the conclusion of his trial with his attorney Winyat Chartmontri and fellow Pheu Thai MP and red-shirt leader Weng Tojirakarn. Ten red shirts were also there to give him support.
The court turned down Jatuporn’s request to present seven more defence witnesses and have their testimonies broadcast live, saying that there were already sufficient witnesses and the case mainly involved legal issues.
The court also told the two parties in the case to submit their closing statements in writing within 15 days. It set 10.30am on May 18 to read the verdict.
Also yesterday, the Constitution Court scheduled next Friday for handing down its verdicts on the parliamentary status of two other MPs in connection with their roles in last year’s flood crisis.
In one case, Justice Minister Pracha Promnok and other Pheu Thai MPs accused Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and Democrat MP Warong Dejkitwikrom of violating Article 266 of the Constitution by allegedly interfering in the work of government or public officials.
In the other case, Abhisit and other Democrat MPs accused Pracha and seven other Pheu Thai MPs of infringing Article 265 of the Constitution by accepting “special money or benefit” from a state agency. One of the Pheu Thai MPs, Jarupong Ruangsuwan, was dropped from the case after he resigned as an MP.
Democrat MP Wiruch Kalayasiri, the attorney for Abhisit and Warong, said he was confident that the evidence proved that the two Democrats did not interfere in the work of state officials when they asked for relief items to be distributed in flood-hit Phitsanulok last year.
