Budget bill fallout
House Speaker Chuan Leekpai has vowed to press ahead with a probe into illegal proxy voting by some coalition MPs during the House deliberation of the budget bill.
He has assigned Anant Phol-amnuay, a Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) MP who chairs a committee on House affairs, to look into the issue after the parliament secretarygeneral said no officials were brave enough to investigate the MPs.
Mr Chuan said the House will forward the findings to the National Anti-Corruption Commission for further action against the wrongdoers. “No one will be spared punishment,” he said.
Mr Anant told the Bangkok Post that it was initially agreed that a neutral party such as the parliament secretary-general should investigate to ensure impartiality.
But parliament officials distanced themselves from the issue, so the House committee had to step in, he said. The panel, however, has no authority to investigate the affair.
“This is because the new House regulations do not allow the committee to investigate MPs, only to gather facts.”
He added that House meetings were facing hiccups over having to share the meeting room with the Senate while a new chamber is constructed. The room can seat 350 MPs and there are not enough voting machines to accommodate all 500 MPs at the same time. This means they have to take turns when they cast their votes on legislation, Mr Anant said.
Sources close to the matter said it was possible that sharing machines could be mistaken for proxy voting.
On Thursday, the 3.2-trillion-baht budget bill, a crucial piece of legislation for oiling the economy, was approved by the House in a re-vote ordered by the Constitutional Court.
The court order came after two government MPs were registered as voting on the bill’s second and third readings on Jan 10 and 11 despite not being present.
Asked to rule if the entire bill should be invalidated on account of the proxy votes, the court instead it ordered a re-vote on the second and third readings.
Two Bhumjaithai MPs, Chalong Therdwirapong and Natee Ratchakitprakarn, were recorded as having voted to pass the budget despite not being in the House on Jan 10-11. A clip aired on Channel 7 also showed Prim Pooncharoen of the PPRP and Somboon Zarum of the Bhumjaithai Party inserting more than one card into voting machines.
Anudit Nakhontap, secretary-general of the main opposition Pheu Thai Party, called on the proxy voters to resign.
The irregularity was exposed by Nipit Intarasombat, a former Democrat MP, who supplied evidence that the MPs were elsewhere when their votes were cast.
Mr Nipit lost to Mr Chalong in Phatthalung in last year’s general election. The Democrat member denied he was motivated by a desire to settle an old score with Mr Chalong.