Constitutional Court rejects petition against EC, Bhumjaithai over senatorial election

The Constitutional Court judges decided on Tuesday to reject a petition by a serial petitioner against the Election Commission (EC), the Bhumjaithai Party, and 138 senators over alleged collusion in last year’s senatorial election.

The court rejected the petition from Nathaporn Toprayoon on the grounds that the alleged collusion in the senatorial voting was already being investigated by government agencies responsible for the case.

As a result, the court reasoned that the petition did not fall under the provisions of Article 49, which Nathaporn had cited to submit the petition.

On May 15, Nathaporn submitted his petition to the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) for it to be forwarded to the court, but the OAG declined to do so, prompting him to invoke Article 49 and submit the petition to the court on his own.

The petition named 12 defendants, including the EC (first defendant), the EC secretary-general (second), Bhumjaithai (third), the Bhumjaithai executive board (fourth), and 138 senators (fifth).

The petition alleged that Bhumjaithai engineered voting collusion among candidates, helping the 138 senators win the election, and that the EC failed to prevent such practices.