By Thai Newsroom Reporters
A GROUP OF PERSONS in reserve position for senators today (April 2) repeated their formal petition for the Election Commission to immediately suspend the polling agency’s secretary-general Sawaeng Boonmee from work, pending an in-depth probe into his duty-negligence charges pertaining to last year’s senatorial rigging scandals.
The petitioners revisited the Election Commission’s headquarters to reiterate their yet-unmet calls for the suspension of the agency’s secretary-general from performing after he had been accused of deliberately failing to take action against a number of senatorial contestants who had allegedly perpetrated electoral irregularities by evidently bringing paper scripts into polling units to vote for fellow candidates at the national level of the complicated, triple-tiered senatorial elections.
No progress in the polling agency’s investigation into the senatorial rigging scandals as well as duty-negligence charges filed against the secretary-general has been reported so far.
Neither has Election Commission Chair Itthiporn Boonprakhong made any commitment to the repeated pleas lodged by the persons in reserve position for senators whilst Sawaeng has continued to work as normal at the agency’s headquarters.
Sawaeng had been accused by some of the former senatorial contestants including those petitioners of deliberately neglecting his duties in the face of the allegations of electoral rigging, vote-buying and bloc-voting shenanigans orchestrated by unnamed persons discreetly connected with the Bhumjaithai, the second largest coalition partner under de facto party boss Newin Chidchob.
The agency’s secretary-general is a native of Buriram, the largest stronghold of the Bhumjaithai and home province of the de facto party boss.
As many as 138 out of a total 200 senators have been alleged of involvement in such electoral fraud and so far ostensibly performed at parliament in compliance with policies and resolutions of Newin’s camp.
As many as 1,200 people including former senatorial candidates may be questioned as personal witnesses in regard to the senatorial rigging charges by the Department of Special Investigation which has been handling relevant scandals as a special case.
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Election Commission Secretary-General Sawaeng Boonmee. Top photo: Naewna, Front Page photo: Thai Rath
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