Court orders EC to pay Pheu Thai ex-MP THB62 million over wrongful disqualification
The Court of Appeals has ordered the Election Commission (EC) to pay 62 million baht in damages to a candidate who was accused by the election agency of vote-buying and wrongfully disqualified after winning the 2019 general election in Chiang Mai.
Surapol Kietchaiyakorn of the opposition Pheu Thai Party said on Wednesday that the Court of Appeals had upheld the verdict of the lower court which had judged the EC and its officials guilty and ordered them to pay him 70 million baht in damages.
The higher court ruled that the EC should pay the plaintiff 56,792,568 baht, plus interest from November 16, 2019 to April 10, 2021 at 7.5% annually, and from April 11, 2021 until now at 5% annually. The amount of compensation plus interest add up to 62 million baht.
Surapol said he is glad that the court had upheld the verdict and that he had successfully defended his personal honour and that of Pheu Thai Party. “Throughout over 30 years in politics, I have never once bought votes,” he said.
Surapol, a seven-time MP from Chiang Mai, was re-elected in the March 2019 general election. However, the EC ruled that he had violated the law by giving 2,000 baht and a clock to a prominent local monk.
The EC had, therefore, disqualified Surapol and issued him an “orange card”, which in effect prevented him from contesting in a by-election called a month later, as well as any other election for a year.
Surapol brought his case to the Supreme Court's Election Division, which ruled in September 2020 that there was insufficient evidence to prove that he had made promises in return for votes.
On Wednesday Surapol said that the EC should not use its budget, which comes from taxpayers, to pay the damages and instead should use the money from the commissioners who had approved his disqualification.
