By Thai Newsroom Reporters
DEMOCRAT PARTY today (Jan. 18) reassured legal action will certainly be taken against a notorious MP of Palang Pracharath Party for evidently accusing the former of ”outbuying votes” to defeat the latter in Sunday’s by-election for MP in two southern constituencies.
Democrat Party spokesman Ramet Ratanachaweng reconfirmed his party will definitely file a libel lawsuit against Palang Pracharath MP Parina Kraikupt who has evidently accused the Democrats of outbuying votes to win the by-election in Chumphon and Songkhla defeating their archrivals running under the tickets of Palang Pracharath Party.
Parina posted the accusation on her Facebook page saying ”the only thing which landed the Democrats a by-election victory in both constituencies was they outbought votes.”
Deputy Prime Minister/Palang Pracharath Party leader Prawit admitted that the unproven accusation made by Parina has rendered damage to the reputation of the party as a whole and ordered the woman MP to immediately delete her Facebook message.
On a recent Palang Pracharath campaign trail in Songkhla a few days ahead of the polling date, Parina called on an attentive crowd to second a fresh move to have Deputy Prime Minister/Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanavisit ousted due to his alleged failure to keep the prices of pork and other subsistent goods from soaring. Jurin concurrently acts as leader of Democrat Party.
Since early last year, Parina has been suspended at the order of the court from doing the MP duties pending a final verdict on charges of encroachment upon a forest reserve in her own constituency in Ratchaburi.
Nevertheless, the Democrat Party spokesman contended that the accusation made by the woman MP and circulated on social media was considered an undeniable, irreversible fait accompli though it may already have been erased from her Facebook page. The accusation will certainly substantiate the Democrat Party’s defamatory lawsuit pending against Parina in court, Ramet said.
He said Palang Pracharath Party as the largest coalition partner in government had apparently failed to pay due respect for Democrat Party as a fellow coalition partner or to keep one of their partisan members from launching such contemptuous slanders.
Without naming names or going into details, Palang Pracharath Party secretary-general Thammanat Prompow earlier commented that the Chumphon by-election was prevailed by “outrageous” vote-buying and electoral rigging allegations with pieces of evidence having already been handed over to the police.
Those included a picture of an unidentified villager receiving some cash from a canvasser for an unnamed candidate and handing over his ID card to the suspected vote-buyer, according to the Palang Pracharath secretary-general.
Democrat candidates Issarapong Mark-ampai and Supaporn Kamnerdpol defeated Palang Pracharath contenders Chavalit Ardharn and Anukul Prueksanusak in Chumphorn and Songkhla respectively.
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Top: Palang Pracharath MP Parina Kraikupt.
Home Page: Democrat candidates Issarapong Mark-ampai canvassing in Chumphon province last week. Photos: Naewna
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