Activist Sonthiya Sawasdee has provided additional documents to support his petition filed with the Constitutional Court against the Pheu Thai Party for allegedly failing to honour its election-policy 10,000-baht digital wallet scheme.
He said the ruling party had yet to implement the scheme. The recent distribution of a 10,000-baht each to marginalised and vulnerable people did not equate to the digital wallet programme it had promised, he said.
Pheu Thai had promised during its election campaign last year it would roll out a digital wallet policy with handouts. Initially, the government planned to give 10,000 baht each to 50 million people over 16 years of age through a digital money platform.
However, the scheme only saw a handout disbursed from Sept 25 to 30, in which 14.5 million state welfare cardholders and disabled people each received 10,000 baht, with payment made via PromptPay.
Mr Sonthiya said one of the additional documents he submitted on Monday was to ascertain whether he has the right to petition the Constitutional Court.
The activist was supposed to have forwarded the petition to the court via the ombudsman. However, a delay in gathering documentary evidence saw him unable to lodge the petition with the ombudsman within the deadline. This forced him to petition the Constitutional Court directly.
Mr Sonthiya said it was obvious Pheu Thai has been unable to deliver its election promise.
The party was emulating the handout programme adopted by the Prayut Chan-o-cha administration to assist people financially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But circumstances had changed and Pheu Thai should have done what it pledged to do, which was to stimulate the economy, not cater to welfare needs as the recent handout was apparently intended to do, the activist said.
He accused Pheu Thai of violating the election law by reneging on its election promise.
Up to 40 million people aged 16-45 originally targeted as recipients of the digital wallet scheme had missed out on the handout. "This is tantamount to deceit," he said.
The Election Commission (EC) had dropped an earlier complaint alleging Pheu Thai had broken the law in not pushing ahead with the digital wallet scheme.
Mr Sonthiya warned that if the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of his petition against Pheu Thai, the EC would face the music.
Meanwhile, 80% of recipients of the recent cash handout said they had spent all of the money, according to the Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting.
