Wissanu denies EC skulduggery

Finding candidates to fill the last two election commissioner seats will remain via an open application process and not through a system where the regime invites people to apply for the job, according to Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam.

The deputy was fending off rumours the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) was looking to invite people for selection as poll commissioners after two previous selection rounds of voting by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) failed to fill all seven places.

The NLA failed to back any candidates in the first round, saying those nominated by the selection panel were all unqualified.

A second round last week saw the assembly elect five of the seven nominees for the Election Commission (EC).

Two more places still need to be filled, sparking rumours the government would resort to inviting people it can manipulate to occupy the two remaining posts.

Mr Wissanu said the rumours were baseless and denied the regime was keeping the two remaining slots for its own people.

“The NCPO can’t possibly do that because it has no right to,” he said.

The current charter increased the number of election commissioners to seven, up from five under the previous constitution.

The five current election commissioners will be replaced when the people backed by the NLA last week receive royal endorsement.

On Wednesday, the NLA spent almost three hours voting on seven nominees: Santhat Siriananpaiboon; Itthiporn Boonprakong; Thawatchai Therdpaothai; Chatchai Chanpraisri; Pakorn Mahannop; Somchai Charnnarongkul; and Pirasak Hinmuangkao.

Each nominee 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 only three votes for and 193 votes against with no abstentions while Mr Pirasak, a former governor, garnered 28 votes for, 168 votes against, and five abstentions.

Mr Somchai f aces National AntiCorruption Commission accusations of dereliction of duty while he was 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.