More legal problems await jailed Chonsawat

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) revealed yesterday that it was about to conclude its investigation into Chonsawat’s alleged abuse of the state budget. He is accused of illegitimately allocating hundreds of millions of baht of the state budget to local temples between 2011 and 2013.

“An NACC fact-finding subcommittee is completing its investigation report,” NACC member Supa Piyajitti said. 

Chonsawat, a son of former deputy interior minister-turned fugitive Wattana, was given a jail term of a year and half as the Supreme Court upheld an earlier verdict convicting him of electoral fraud during the 1999 municipal election in Samut Prakan province.

The final ruling on the case was made on Tuesday, forcing Chonsawat to immediately go to jail. While the case was in court, Chonsawat managed to establish himself as a key politician in the province that was once dominated by his father. 

Wattana, meanwhile, went on the run before the verdict prosecuting him on corruption charges came out in 2008. 

However, despite the scandals surrounding his father, Chonsawat has proved to be popular among local voters. Even his marriage to actress Janie Thienphosuvan became the talk of the town last year. 

Chonsawat was removed from his post as chief executive of the Samut Prakan Provincial Administrative Organisation in June over alleged irregularities in budget spending. 

Meanwhile, Samut Prakan Prison chief Paisan Suwannaraksa said yesterday that the politician had adjusted well to life behind bars. 

Separately, former Samut Prakan Pheu Thai MP Worachai Hema said jailing Chonsawat would not affect the state of politics in Samut Prakan. 

“The political situation here won’t change much. He has two brothers who can replace him in local administration,” Worachai said, adding that it would be difficult for anybody else to take over the Asavahame family’s political stronghold. 

He pointed out that the same network of election canvassers would continue operating, hence members of the Asavahame family would still remain present in local politics. 

Worachai emphasised that politics in Samut Prakan was divided into two categories. The first one is at the national level, where Samut Prakan voters had been voting for Pheu Thai for a long time; and the second is at the local level, where agencies like Provincial Administrative Organisation (PAO), Provincial Council, Subdistrict Administrative Organisation (SAO) and municipality, were all controlled by the Asavahames. 

“No Asavahame family member has been able to beat a Pheu Thai candidate at the national level,” Worachai said.