Majority agree with use of Article 44 for seizure of suspects’
Most people surveyed recently agreed with the use of Article 44 of the interim charter to empower the Department of Legal Execution to seize assets of those responsible for the controversial rice-pledging scheme, according to Bangkok Poll results released
Of 1,150 people surveyed nationwide, 63 per cent wanted sweeping powers to do so, more than 32 per cent want facts to be discovered quickly and another 31 per cent want the cases to proceed faster.
The survey “What do people think about proceedings in the rice-pledging scheme cases?” was conducted from last Wednesday to Friday.
Almost 37 per cent of respondents, meanwhile, disagreed with the use of such power as they preferred the cases to follow usual justice procedures and another 11 per cent opined that invoking Article 44 could be seen as political abuse.
The respondents’ answers followed Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s use of Article 44 to empower the Justice Ministry department to enforce laws to ensure that alleged wrongdoings by state officials are dealt with through civil liability lawsuits.