Election commission supports probe into vote rigging

Election Commission (EC) chairman Itthiporn Boonpracong said he was glad that the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) was joining in a probe into alleged collusion over last year’s Senate election.

Regarding the progress of the investigation into the vote-rigging claims, Mr Itthiporn said the EC had already received 577 petitions about alleged misconduct in relation to last year’s Senate election.

To date, nine finished cases have been sent to the Supreme Court for further legal prosecution, he said.

Of the 577 complaints so far received, 220 cases were related to vote-rigging allegations, a violation under Section 77(1) of the organic law on the composition of the Senate, he said.

Of these cases, 115 have been thoroughly investigated, Mr Itthiporn said.

Additional alleged Senate vote-buying cases were filed before the EC yesterday, after they were transferred from the DSI.

He said the EC had invited DSI officials to cooperate with the EC on these three additional cases.

These cases were sent by the DSI, which found such violations to be under the jurisdiction of the EC following a preliminary probe against the organic law on Senate composition.

The EC has been criticised for dragging the investigations on the Senate election and lack of transparency.

At the same time, around 30 former Senatorial candidates, on the reserve list, filed a petition demanding the suspension of EC secretary-general Sawaeng Boonmee over dereliction of duty after he allegedly failed to stop collusion in the Senate election process.

Candidates from the eligible professional groups voted among themselves, and also on a district, provincial and national basis, as in the case of the Senate election held last year.

The group said there was the probable reason to believe that the EC might have attempted to cover up the alleged acts by failing to conduct any investigations.

The group also requested that other agencies, including the Royal Thai Police, DSI, the Anti-Money Laundering Office and the Office of the Attorney General, become involved with the investigation into collusion over the Senate elections in order to foster public trust and ensure the investigation is as thorough as can be.