Party leader fingers Democrats
Pattana Chart Thai Party leader Boontaweesak Amornsin yesterday told the Constitution Tribunal that continuous pressure from the Democrat Party had prompted him to reveal that the Democrats had tried to pay him to frame Thai Rak Thai.
Testifying at the fourth hearing of the electoral-fraud case against Pattana Chart Thai and the Democrats, Boontaweesak said he tried to keep his party away from other parties' actions in the run-up to last year's April 2 election. However, the Democrats would not give up, forcing him to speak out. Boontaweesak said Democrat Thaikorn Polsuwan first offered him Bt5 million not to field candidates against Thai Rak Thai candidates, which he declined. Then on March 15, Pattana Chart Thai director Suksan Chaiyates and candidate Chawakarn Tosawat brought Thaikorn and Democrat secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban to his home in Nakhon Ratchasima. He said this time Suthep asked him to frame Thai Rak Thai executives Thamarak Isarangura and Pongsak Ruktapongpisal, and he declined yet again, but the Democrats later accused him of taking money and threatened him. Boontaweesak said Better Life Party leader Watwarit Tantipirom, who had also been contacted by Thaikorn, also decided to complain to the Election Commission (EC) after learning he would have to testify to the EC. Watwarit gave a video recording of his own conversation with Thaikorn to then EC chairman Vasana Puemlarp, which Boontaweesak said he viewed for the first time along with Vasana. Speaking after the hearing, Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said Boontaweesak's information was different from his testimony before the EC investigation committee. He said Boontaweesak had first claimed the Democrats hired him to withdraw candidates so that Thai Rak Thai candidates had to run alone. Later, after realising that candidate registration had ended, he claimed the Democrats had hired him to frame Thai Rak Thai, said Abhisit. Election law requires that a candidate in an uncontested constituency receive at least 20 per cent of the vote from eligible voters to win a seat. While Thai Rak Thai stands accused of hiring candidates from small parties to compete in the election to avoid the requirement, the Democrats are accused of hiring small parties to frame Thai Rak Thai. Kornchanok Raksaseri The Nation
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