A panel of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) is huddled in a closed-door meeting today, with representatives of the Office of Attorney-General, the Royal Thai Police, the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, to discuss the allegations of voting collusion in the Senate election last June.
An informed source said that they will focus on whether the alleged voting collusion should be considered as a special case, to be investigated by the DSI, and whether it should be treated as a case of criminal association.
Also today, a group of senatorial reservists submitted a petition letter to Parliament President Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, demanding a probe into the ethical conduct of the senators who had sought an investigation of Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong and the DSI chief.
Akarawat Pongthanachalitkul, one of the reservists, alleges that the senatorial election last year was not fair and riddled with voting collusion and manipulation. He claims that instruction notes on how to vote had been distributed to numerous senatorial candidates and that election officials allowed candidates to take the instructions into the polling booths. Many of the notes are now in the hands of the DSI officials.
He also claims that candidates who agreed to vote as instructed were promised 20,000 baht before the election and 30,000 baht after the voting.
Akarawat says he does not want the Senate election to be nullified, but those who plotted and executed the alleged election fraud must be punished according to the law.
