Court set to rule on poll tomorrow

Court set to rule on poll tomorrow

Phongthep pledges govt will comply

The Constitution Court is scheduled to deliver a ruling on the validity of the Feb 2 election tomorrow.

The date for the ruling was set following a two-hour hearing into a complaint submitted by Kittipong Kamolthammawong, a law lecturer at Thammasat University, who claimed the general election was unconstitutional.

In his complaint, forwarded to the Constitution Court via the Office of Ombudsman on March 6, Mr Kittipong claimed there were several flaws in the way the troubled Feb 2 poll was conducted which breached the constitution.

One of the flaws was that the vote count on election day has already been made known which could affect the decision of voters in poll re-runs.

The court yesterday heard testimony from Pornpet Wichitchonchai, an ombudsman, Election Commission (EC) chairman Supachai Somcharoen and caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Phongthep Thepkanchana.

Speaking ahead of the hearing, Mr Phongthep said the government would challenge the complaint on the grounds that the Office of the Ombudsman had no authority to forward the complaint to the court.

He said although the ombudsman is authorised to seek a ruling on the constitutionality of laws, executive decrees or announcements, it has no power to ask the court to rule on ''the performance of an organisation,'' a reference to the EC which is in charge of organising free and fair elections.

In this case, the EC was required to implement the royal decree for the general election.

However, the poll agency has yet to complete the election process, Mr Phongthep said.

He also stressed the court has no authority to hear the case. The government had little time to prepare its defence while the Office of the Ombudsman had more than two weeks to collect evidence before it forwarded the case to the court.

The government received the court's summons to testify on March 14, Mr Phongthep said.

However, the deputy prime minister distanced the government from the Pheu Thai Party's stance. On Tuesday Pheu Thai accused the court of failing to respect the constitution and the rule of law and trying to expand its power.

According to Mr Phongthep, the government has a duty to clarify matters before the court and to comply with the court's ruling no matter if it is ''right or wrong''.

EC chairman Supachai Somcharoen said before the hearing that the commission has followed the law during every step of the election process.

He said the EC is ready to accept the court's ruling and act on it.

Asked who would take responsibility if the court rules the poll is invalid, Mr Somchai said he could not say at this stage and it would depend on the ruling. 

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