Sonthi to keep his job fighting money politics

"I did nothing wrong, I am doing my job," he said, insisting that he remains politically neutral.

Sonthi said he was doing everything in his power to forge unity and national reconciliation in line with the royal advice given by His Majesty the King on Sunday.

He urged rival politicians to put their animosity behind.

After speaking to reporters, he chaired his committee to assess the work progress on the awareness of money politics.

The Sonthi committee acknowledged the report of public enthusiasm to cast ballots as indicated by a high turnout of registered absentee voters. Some 2 million people will cast their ballots in advance on Saturday and Sunday, a fivefold increase from the last general election. About 79,000 Thai expats will vote at overseas balloting stations.

The committee also voiced concern about the findings of an independent study about the involvement of authorities in vote buying.

The extent of votebuying networks included 13.7 per cent of government officials, 8.6 per cent of headmen and kamnan, 6.8 per cent of local officials, 20 per cent of police and 1.5 per cent of soldiers.

Some 10.7 per cent of voters said they were approached to sell their votes.

Defence Minister Boonrawd Somtas said all parties concerned should heed the royal advice on unity.

Boonrawd said the country was gearing for the resumption of normalcy following the balloting.

"To achieve this, everyone should drop their grudges and biases," he said.

He also defended Sonthi for doing his duties with good intent in order to ensure a free and fair election, dismissing speculation about pinning the blame on him for the classified documents.

"Sonthi left the junta since September and it appears unfair to blame him because he is now wearing a different hat as deputy prime minister," he said.

He voiced optimism that the controversy surrounding the junta's documents would end in an acceptable manner following the ruling by the Election Commission expected later this week.

The Nation