Mayor faces heat over schoolgirl scandal
A LOCAL politician yesterday urged Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha to remove scandal-plagued Muang Ban Phai Mayor Premsak Piayura or at least suspend him pending the results of investigations into reports he married or became engaged to a Mathayo
“The scandal suggests that he might have gravely violated ethics in having a relationship with a schoolgirl,” Dejdamrong Singkleebut, a councillor of the Ban Phai Provincial Administrative Organisation, said yesterday.
Premsak, 51, reportedly either married or got engaged to the student in mid-July.
Alumni of the Ban Phai School in Khon Kaen province have launched a campaign to remove him as the school’s chairman and special lecturer.
After pictures of him and the girl emerged in media, Premsak was reportedly left fuming. On July 26, he allegedly had a male reporter partially stripped to show how one would feel if one’s personal affairs were made public.
The Khon Kaen Provincial Authority is investigating the alleged incident.
Surachai Wattana-udomchai, a high-ranking official at the authority, said the probe into Premsak’s alleged inappropriate behaviour should be concluded by August 11.
“We will summon Premsak, too,” he said.
An informed source said five reporters at the scene of the alleged stripping incident in Premsak’s municipal office were scheduled to testify on Wednesday.
Premsak yesterday remained evasive about his relationship with the schoolgirl but confirmed he was the man in the widely circulated shot.
Regarding the stripping scandal, he denied allegations that he had reporters held against their will and had his subordinates pull down on reporter’s trousers.
“I am not a cruel man. What has appeared in news reports is based on one-sided information,” he said.
The mayor yesterday submitted a petition to Prayut via a government complaint-receiving centre in Bangkok, asking him to exercise his power under Section 44 of the interim constitution to reform the media.
Premsak claimed reporters raided into his office to pressure him to answer questions about his picture.
“They have infringed on my privacy,” he said. He suspects that political rivals might have wanted to damage his reputation because they wanted to run for the post of Ban Phai mayor.
Premsak, a former Thai Rak Thai MP, said he had no intention of contesting national elections again as he preferred working at a local level.
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