Bhumjaithai executives should be prosecuted, says election commissioner

Election Commissioner Sitthichot Intrawiset said in a press conference on 15 September that he believes the 20 Bhumjaithai Party executives implicated in the Senate selection fraud case should have been prosecuted.

The Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) voted 5 to 2 not to refer the Bhumjaithai executives to the Supreme Court. Sitthichot, along with Election Commissioner Chai Nakornchai, were the two who voted in favour of prosecuting.

Sitthichot said that he and Chai believe there is enough evidence that the Bhumjaithai executives were involved in collusion during the Senate selection. Evidence was found of vote rigging in several provinces, where candidates were gathered in hotels and given voting instructions. Sittichotnoted that candidates ranked in the first 7 places from each group were included in the instruction sheets found and are being prosecuted, showing that those involved in making the instruction sheets have committed fraud. 

All evidence in each province points to one political party, Sitthichot said. Each suspect is either a member of or connected to this party. A witness who later retracted their testimony said that an order was given during a party meeting for local MPs or party members to take part in collusion. Sittichotsaid that he found the witness’testimony credible because action took place that corresponded with the testimony.

Another witness, a secretary to one of the senators, said that a group of senators met at a hotel in Bangkok after the ECT certified the selection result. Members of the party were also in attendance. According to Sittichot, the witness said the meeting was to select the senate president and vice presidents, and that they saw high-ranking figures in the party walking out of the room. This corresponds with call records to some ministers after the selection. Sittichot said that the minority Election Commissioners believe these instances can be considered involvement in colluding to produce voting instructions in each province.

Sitthichot said that Direk Pornseema, another witness, gave testimony that corresponded with that of Witness No. 16/26, previously revealed to be former Bhumjaithai MP Ekkarat Changlao, concerning the action of a minister. Sitthichot said he does not believe Ekkarat retracted his testimony because he was threatened into testifying because Ekkarat was an MP at the time and an influential figure. Another witness who retracted his testimony is a politician’s father-in-law, and Sitthichote does not think anyone would threaten such a figure. 

Sitthichot said that, although no records were found of money transfers by well-known politicians, there are records of transfers by people connected to them. One witness claimed that they went to the party headquarters to receive money in cash, but no one else can corroborate the account. 

He also said that he told the ECT Chair about transaction records of a senator from Prachuap Khiri Khan and that a businessman named Worapoj Tangphanphian transferred a large amount of money to Surat Thani. However, when he asked the joint investigation committee where the money came from, he was told that they cannot investigate because the ECT voted 4 to 3 to reject the evidence. Sitthichot still considers it an offence because the money has to come from somewhere, but due to this limitation, he could not find out more. It is now up to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to continue investigating, since the DSI is investigating the Senate collusion case as a money laundering case and may prosecute other individuals.

Regarding Ekkarat’s claim, after retracting his testimony, that the voting instruction notes were not real, Sitthichot said that CCTV footage from the national level selection showed a candidate bringing out the notes. A witness who testified to the joint investigation committee also took a picture of the notes on their phones, which shows the dates the notes were made. It is therefore not possible for the notes to have been made after the testimony was given or that the investigation committee made them up to make accusations.

He noted that writing down the numbers of candidates to vote for would be wrong if the candidates are told which numbers to write down, which is different from the candidates taking notes in the introduction documents to remind themselves of the numbers. The Supreme Court previously ruled that voting with instructions given by others means that the candidates are not voting independently and is considered fraudulent. 

On 14 September, the ECT voted to prosecute 77 out of 229 individuals implicated in the Senate selection fraud case. 26 of those prosecuted are sitting senators. Bhumjaithai Party executives, including Prime Minister and party leader Anutin Charnvirakul, were not prosecuted.

Of the 7 election commissioners, 4 were appointed after they were approved by the incumbent Senate: Narong Klunwarin, Narong Rakroi, AnanSuwannarat, and Chirute Visalachitra. 

Among this group, 3 were also bureaucrats serving under Bhumjaithai Cabinet ministers or working closely with Bhumjaithai politicians. Anan was the Permanent Secretary for Agriculture between October 2018 - September 2020, when Mananya Thaiseth — sister of Bhumjaithai deputy leader Chada Thaiseth, one of the suspects in the Senate selection fraud case — was Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives. Narong Rakroi was Governor of Uthai Thani between 2018 - 2021, during which time he worked with Alongkot Worakee, now a senator and a suspect in the selection fraud. He served as Governor around the same time that Mananya was Mayor of Uthai Thani Municipality. Chirute was formerly the Director-General of the Department of Land Transport when Saksayam Chidchob was Minister of Transport.

Election commissioner Titichet Nutchanart was appointed in December 2018 by the National Legislative Assembly formed in 2014 following the military coup led by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). Titichet has been accused of bribing a former Auditor General and a complaint was filed against him with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).

All 5 voted against prosecuting Bhumjaithai executives. Meanwhile, Sittichot and Chai, who voted in favour of prosecution, were appointed following approval from the NCPO-appointed Senate, which was in office from 2019 to2024.