Candidates vie for top Pheu Thai job

Candidates vie for top Pheu Thai job

UDD makes no bones about its (fear and) loathing of pro-regime party - Pheu Thai in disarray over leadership race - Assembly picks 5 of 7 election commissioners after several failed attempts and, potentially, attempted sabotage

Phumtham: Voters will 'judge' defectors
Phumtham: Voters will 'judge' defectors

Red shirts lay down law

Nattawut: Downplays poaching impact

With former Pheu Thai Party MPs and red-shirt members reportedly being approached to join a pro-regime political party, key red-shirt figure Nattawut Saikuar recently put on a brave face and downplayed the alleged poaching.

Mr Nattawut, secretary-general of the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), warned that those who switched allegiance could be expelled from the red-shirt movement.

Mr Nattawut said the UDD did not mind if members want to join other parties or even set up their own. They are still considered UDD members and the camaraderie will remain solid as long as the parties they join or set up uphold the principle of democracy, he added.

Still, he drove home the message that the UDD would never ally itself with any party that supports the regime and backs anyone who is not democratically elected to become prime minister.

If any UDD members who defect to such a party and subscribe to turning their back on democratic principles, then they are no longer part of the UDD, he said.

He was responding to a move by Pirom Polwiset, secretary to the Sam Mitr group, who recently met with UDD sympathisers in the Northeast to exchange views on how to achieve national reconciliation. The trip was seen by many as an effort to poach them from the UDD.

Mr Pirom is a former MP for Nakhon Ratchasima who used to belong to the now-dissolved People Power Party, since reincarnated as Pheu Thai.

The Sam Mitr group is viewed as the regime's recruiting arm, established to court former MPs, particularly from Pheu Thai, to the Phalang Pracharath Party to support Gen Prayut's potential return as premier.

The party was reportedly set up to support Gen Prayut as a democratically installed premier rather than one who rose to power in 2014 through a bloodless coup.

A source said that former UDD key figure Suporn Atthawong was among those migrating from the red-shirt movement to the Phalang Pracharath.

Better known by his nickname "Rambo Isan", Mr Suporn, is reportedly a member of Nakhon Ratchasima-based Phalang Korat, a newly formed group made up of the province's former MPs affiliated to Pheu Thai. It announced last month it was taking the side of Phalang Pracharath.

Mr Nattawut was the only UDD key figure who won the trust of fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinwatrawa. This was attested to by his appointment as deputy commerce minister during her government, the source said.

He played a key role in grooming a politically inexperienced Yingluck to run in the 2014 general election, which saw her rise to power, spending only 47 days on election campaign trails, the source said. In return for his assistance, Mr Nattawut was rewarded with the deputy commerce portfolio, the source said.

"Other UDD members who were not MPs or cabinet ministers felt very inferior when they went to Pheu Thai's headquarters," a former UDD member said.

Considering his exalted status, Mr Nattawut, therefore, cannot afford to dream of breaking away from Pheu Thai and defecting to other parties, as opposed to other UDD members affiliated with Pheu Thai who are not confident of their political future, the source said.

Several UDD co-leaders have been released on bail pending court trials of cases related to the political unrest in May 2010, so they stand little chance of contesting the next general election.

Phumtham: Voters will 'judge' defectors

Pheu Thai ponders leader

A lot of news has been published about the Pheu Thai Party possibly falling apart after fast losing former MPs to a newly registered political party bent on securing Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's return as premier after a general election.

But according to political observers, the former ruling party is also crumbling from within due to protracted uncertainty over the party leadership.

The chance of Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, who is touted as the most promising candidate, leading the Pheu Thai to election glory is now in doubt as the names of new potential candidates keep popping up.

Khunying Sudarat's path to the party leadership was never strewn with roses despite reports that she has the backing of Thaksin Shinawatra, the party's alleged de facto leader.

As Pheu Thai struggles to stem the defections, Chaturon Chaisaeng, a party heavyweight and former deputy leader of the now-dissolved Thai Rak Thai Party, is emerging as a potential candidate to lead the party.

An education minister in the Yingluck Shinawatra government, Mr Chaturon is said to be well liked by advocates of civil liberty and democracy both within and outside of Pheu Thai.

He was forced to remain politically inactive for five years when he and 110 other former executives of Thai Rak Thai were slapped with a five-year ban for complicity in electoral fraud.

Topping the list of possible candidates for the party leader is Pongthep Thepkanchana, a former justice minister, who is known to be one of Thaksin's trusted aides.

Mr Pongthep also served as Thaksin's personal spokesman after the latter fled the country just before he was given a two-year jail sentence by the Supreme Court in 2008 for abuse of authority in the Ratchadaphisek land deal in 2008.

Another attracting attention is Pheu Thai's acting secretary-general, Phumtham Wechayachai, who is known for his ability to negotiate and reach a compromise.

It is Mr Phumtham who recently stepped out to urge party members to avoid lobbing criticism against defectors and to maintain friendships with their old colleagues.

"It's essential that we respect the politicians' decisions [to move to another party]. We'll wait for election day when the voters will be the judge of their actions," he was quoted as telling party members.

Among those dispensing harsh criticism over the defections is none other than Thaksin himself, according to political observers. The former premier has suggested that some former MPs are leaving the party because they were lured by offers of some kind.

Mr Phumtham and other core members, according to a Pheu Thai party source, have urged party members not to hold grudges, or at least keep the peace for now, against their former colleagues who defected to avoid hard feelings between them.

The party's bigwigs are aware of how difficult it is for politicians to maintain support bases over these years when financial support from the party is said to have dried up. The party members have been left to fend for themselves and their political canvassers since the May 2014 coup.

It is reported that Pheu Thai heavyweights plan to ask the party's financiers and its big boss to renew financial support and end the "dry spell" as an election campaign will start soon.

As for Thaksin, who is one of the biggest influencers of the anti-regime politicians, he will have a tough decision to make with regard to his political future after the next poll because the political landscape is changing and apparently not in his favour, according to observers.

The ousted prime minister has been away from the scene in Thailand for almost 10 years and sources say political elements are believed to be pulling out all the stops to secure the regime's return to power after the polls.

Wissanu: Denies EC selection bias

EC ducks lined up in a row

Critics may have stumbled upon fresh ammunition to attack the government in the form of a perceived attempt to wrest control of the poll regulator.

The unveiling on Wednesday of five election commissioners came after critics were kept in suspense over who among the finalists would make the cut for the top Election Commission (EC) seats.

Some analysts were expecting between three and five people to be named poll commissioners, out of the seven names sent to the National Legislative Assembly (NLA).

They said five people at most would be given the NLA's seal of approval, judging from the candidates' track records.

A political source said their qualifications were initially the subject of much scepticism.

Wednesday's vote was only the second time the assembly has convened in a bid to fill EC seats.

The first attempt ended in disaster, according to the source, as the NLA rejected all of the candidates after deciding that none fitted the bill.

The source said such "misfires" by the NLA had stoked criticism of the committee's abilities.

The panel was supposed to vet the candidates, and their qualifications, and the question on many watchers' lips was how it could have let some many people with dubious records slip through its screening process.

On Wednesday, the NLA debated at length before voting on seven nominees: Santhat Siriananpaiboon; Itthiporn Boonprakong; Thawatchai Therdpaothai; Chatchai Chanpraisri; Pakorn Mahannop; Somchai Charnnarongkul; and Pirasak Hinmuangkao.

Each one needed at least 123 votes, more than half the total NLA membership, to clinch an EC seat.

Mr Somchai and Mr Pirasak were voted down. Mr Somchai, the former chief of the Department of Agricultural Extension, obtained three votes for and 193 against with no abstentions while Mr Pirasak, a former governor, garnered 28 for, 168 against and five abstentions.

Mr Somchai faces accusations from the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) of dereliction of duty while he was the department chief, in connection with large-scale embezzlement from the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative.

Mr Pirasak, meanwhile, was the subject of intense debate in the assembly over his political affiliations.

The two vacant seats mean that a date for a third round of scrutiny and voting must now be set. Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said any candidates can apply and swatted away rumours that the government was inviting "appropriate" contenders.

Mr Wissanu was countering the insinuation that the regime was preparing people it could manipulate to fill the vacant spots.

Critics say they are waiting and watching, wary of any skulduggery that could be resorted to, for example, fielding candidates whose backgrounds would never allow them to get the job, as part of a ruse to keep the NLA from electing a full panel of poll commissioners.

The delayed panel selection makes it look like the regime is being backed into a corner, hinting at a further pushing back of the election roadmap.

Mr Wissanu, however, maintained that the EC could comfortably function with five commissioners as they could reach a quorum on important decisions.

The deputy premier said not many people realise there is a clause in the law that grants parties the right to issue an invitation to candidates to step forward, which can be exercised if need be.

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