Pheu Thai seeks probe into Abhisit’s qualifications to sit as MP
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THE PHEU THAI Party’s acting deputy spokesman, Anusorn Aimsaard, yesterday called for an investigation into whether former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva could be disqualified from holding a seat in the House of Representatives.
The call was based on Abhisit’s removal three years ago from the Army reserve and the loss of his military rank.
On Tuesday, the Civil Court ruled that former defence minister Sukumpol Suwannathat’s order in 2012 to removed Abhisit from the Army reserve was legal and justified. The court dismissed Abhisit’s lawsuit requesting that it revoke the order.
Anusorn said the court had confirmed facts discussed and presented by members of Pheu Thai, and the now-defunct People Power Party, about Abhisit’s embattled military records. It was not political persecution but an honest legal procedure, he added.
He called for responsible agencies to consider whether Abhisit’s dismissal from the military would disqualify him as an MP.
The Constitution Drafting Committee has stated that under the new charter, those who have been dismissed from government agencies would not be eligible as MP candidates.
In November 2012, Sukumpol discharged Abhisit from the Army’s reserve retroactively and stripped him of his military rank, alleging that the former prime minister had not gone through the conscription process required by law.
Rather, the Democrat leader allegedly had used fake documents to apply for a job as a military lecturer in 1987, where he later received his Army sub-lieutenant rank.
A conscription officer from Nakhon Nayok had been discharged on the grounds of disciplinary violations after being involved in an alleged falsification of Abhisit's military records to enable him to receive an appointment as lecturer at the Royal Chulachomklao Military Academy.
Also, Abhisit did not have the documents to show he had been exempted from conscription while studying abroad, the court said on Tuesday.
