POLITICS
POST REPORTERS
The Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) yesterday rejected the Election Commission's attempt to seek a Supreme Court order to disband two main coalition government parties, Chart Thai and Matchimathipataya, citing inconsistent judgement within the EC. A source at the OAG said a committee led by deputy attorney-general Chulasing Wasantasing found many loopholes in the EC's complaint against the two political parties.
One problem was that the EC had resolved to red-card Chart Thai deputy secretary-general Monthien Songpracha and Matchimathipataya deputy leader Sunthorn Wilawan, thus disqualifying them as candidates in the Dec 23 general election and depriving them of their electoral rights for one year.
However, the provincial election committees in Prachin Buri and Chai Nat, where the two contested the Dec 23 polls, had reported to the EC only that they were suspected of poll fraud and had not recommended that the two men should be red-carded.
The Chulasing panel also wanted to see the provincial committees' reports of their investigations which had not yet been forwarded to the panel by the EC, said the source.
Since the prosecution disagreed with the EC at this stage, both sides would form a joint committee to review the issue.
EC chairman Apichart Sukhagganond, in his capacity as the political party registrar, is responsible for setting up the joint panel.
The law does not set a deadline for setting up the joint panel but stipulates that it must reach a conclusion within 30 days of its formation.
Even if the panel fails to reach a conclusion, the political party registrar can still file the party dissolution complaint with the Supreme Court on his own.
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