Sodsri Sattayatham said the EC should give better advice to the public regarding referendum campaigns, responding to earlier criticism that EC members had wasted state funds on trips abroad.

The EC has claimed that they used Political Development Funds for their trips.

According to the law, the EC manages the fund totalling about Bt200 million each year by allocating sums to political parties based on the number of their MPs.|Parties with many MPs can receive as much as Bt30 million, while smaller parties with no MPs can apply for just enough to cover the rent for their party offices, which rarely exceeds Bt100,000 per year.

Sodsri explained that transactions were recorded by the EC for the sake of transparency.

The EC also spends Bt10 million annually on political development and advance election training. Politicians, government officials and people from the private sector who undergo training are given Bt20,000 to go overseas and funds to cover training expenses.

Sodsri said the EC spends Bt5 million earmarked for local elections on overseas trips. “I am not sure if this government will fund overseas excursions,” she said.

The fund has been working under an organic law that originates with the 1997 Constitution.