Thailand's House Speaker Yongyuth Tiyapairat said Tuesday that he decided to suspend his duty as head of the Parliament after the Election Commission (EC) ruled that he was guilty of electoral fraud in the Dec. 23 election and planned to ask the Supreme Court to disqualify him as an elected MP.
Yongyuth announced his decision at a press conference on Tuesday and vowed to fight the allegation which he described as a "set-up" by his political rivals
He denied he had bribed any local officials in his home province Chiang Rai to ensure his victory in the Dec. 23 election.
Earlier in the day, the five Election Commissioners voted 3-2 to uphold the findings by an EC sub-committee that found Yongyuth guilty of vote-buying, and resolved to submit the case against Yongyuth to the Supreme Court's Election Frauds Department.
They demanded the Court to invalidate Yongyuth's electoral victory in the Dec. 23 general election as a party-list Member of Parliament of the People Power Party (PPP) and revoke his electoral right on alleged violation of election laws.
According to the EC's probe, 10 village heads and sub-district chiefs in northern province Chiang Rai, where Yongyuth won a seat in the 480-member House of Representatives as a PPP candidate, had testified that they had each received 20,000 baht (606 U.S. dollars) in cash during the run-up to the December election in exchange for local voters' support for Yongyuth.
Yongyuth said a group of sub-district and village heads paid him a visit in Chiang Rai last year and later learned that these people testified to Special Branch police officers and soldiers about his alleged bribe.
Yongyuth said he would suspend his duty as House Speaker until he clears his name, but he would stay sitting in the parliament asan MP.
The EC is expected to forward the case to the Supreme Court within two weeks.
It is now up to the Supreme Court to decide whether to disqualify Yongyuth. Laws stipulate that Yongyuth be required to suspend his duty as House Speaker and Parliament President after the Supreme Court accepts the petition of the EC and orders a trial. Two Deputy House Speakers, both PPP MPs, would act as interim Speakers during the trial.
Yongyuth, former deputy leader of the PPP, has insisted on his innocence, and alleged that it was a "set-up" to involve him in electoral fraud.
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, also PPP leader, has called an emergency meeting with the PPP's chief executives to discuss the EC's ruling against Yongyuth.
PM's Office Minister Choosak Sirini, also a PPP member, said there is chance for Yongyuth to clear his name as the EC had not voted unanimously to disqualify Yongyuth.
He said the PPP's legal team would help Yongyuth fight the casein court.
Forty-seven-year-old Yongyuth was elected as the new House Speaker and President of Parliament on Jan. 22.
If convicted by the Supreme Court, Yongyuth would lose his seat both as MP or House Speaker and face a five-year ban from electoral process, according to the EC.
Yongyuth's undecided fate, in worse scenario, might threaten the PPP's survival as a political party and the PPP-led coalition government which was just sworn in about three weeks ago.
The EC will move to the probe if the PPP was involved in Yongyuth's alleged offences. If so, the EC will ask the Constitutional Court to rule on whether the party should be dissolved to take responsibility for Yongyuth's alleged wrongdoing.
If the party is dissolved, all PPP party executives, most of whom are now part of the PPP-led cabinet, including PPP leader andnew Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, would automatically lose their cabinet posts and be banned from political activity for five years, replaying what has taken place with the former ruling Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT), founded by ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The TRT was dissolved last May on electoral fraud charges allegedly committed by party executives, and all its 111 party executives, including Thaksin, were banned from politics for five years, in the aftermath of the Sept, 19 military coup in 2006 that ousted the Thaksin administration.
Many former TRT members then joined the PPP, which won the post-coup general election last December by grabbing nearly half of the480 seats in the House of Representatives, and formed a coalition government with five other parties earlier this year.
Source: Xinhua
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