Former parliament president and House speaker Chuan Leekpai has defended Move Forward party-list MP Sirikanya Tansakul, following an accusation, by serial petitioner Srisuwan Janya, that the new MP did not take the oath properly when the House convened for the first time on July 4.

Srisuwan filed a complaint with the National Anti-Corruption Commission on Friday, seeking an investigation into Sirikanya for allegedly not taking the oath properly, as constitutionally required from all MPs before they can start to perform their duties in parliament.

Srisuwan claims that the Move Forward MP did not say her name after the House speaker spoke the lines of the oath, to be repeated by all the MPs present.

Chuan said that, when he presided over the oath taking ceremony, he would enunciate the oath a paragraph at a time and all MPs then repeated it, but they had to insert their names.

In the case of Sukanya, he said the MP is new to parliament and the rules and, therefore, could have been confused and simply read the text of the oath, which is also distributed to all MPs but does not include individuals’ names.

He said, if the MPs had read the full text of the oath and did not follow the House speaker, it would be all right.