Many election candidates from the other parties will be disqualified if the Election Commission (EC) applies the same standard used against his party’s candidates, said Future Forward party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit this afternoon (Tuesday) before meeting with the EC to submit his defence.
Claiming that the party has information on candidates from the other parties, regarding media share-holdings, he said he was not worried about political activist Srisuwan Janya’s petition requesting an EC investigation into the alleged media shareholdings of 11 candidates from the Future Forward party. He claimed many candidates from the other parties will be disqualified if the EC applies the same standard.
Thanathorn handed 26 files of documents to the EC to prove that he had transferred his shares in V-Luck Media Company on January 8th, before he registered his poll candidacy. He also told his supporters that he was confident that the evidence would clarify the situation.
Meanwhile, Future Forward secretary-general Piyabutr Saengkanokkul warned Mr. Srisuwan, without naming him, that he could face charges for making false statements against the party’s candidates, adding that all candidates implicated by Srisuwan had disposed of their media shares before they registered their election candidacy and, in some cases, the media firms had folded prior to the deadline.
Piyabutr also warned the EC that they might face charges of malfeasance in office, in accordance with Article 157 of the Criminal Code, if they use the formula for party-list seat allocation which takes away seats, intended for his party, for distribution to smaller parties with fewer votes than the benchmark required for one party-list seat. This formula for seat calculation is, however, reportedly favored by the Constitution Drafting Committee and the EC.
“Several experts who advocate this formula have argued that the Constitution has attached importance to smaller parties and the votes they receive. I would like to ask what about our 600,000 missing votes. Are they meaningless?” Piyabutr asked.
