NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE Assembly (NLA) President Pornpetch Wichitcholchai yesterday maintained that the road map to the election remained unaffected despite the NLA voting down all seven final candidates for the new Election Commission (EC).

The NLA yesterday voted overwhelmingly in a closed-door meeting to turn down all the candidates. The new round of selection kicked off immediately and will have to be completed within 90 days, according to the law.

Under the law, candidates who get a majority of NLA votes would become the new EC members. But all seven candidates received less than the required minimum of 125 of 248 votes.

An NLA source said the rejection followed concern of legislators that the controversial initial selection process might have damaged public confidence in the new EC and more problems might ensue.

The seven candidates would have filled vacancies in the Election Commission, the key agency responsible for holding elections. The move was viewed as another attempt to prolong the hold over power of the junta and delay the promised election.

However, Pornpetch assured the current EC members, acting as caretakers after being dismissed by the new EC organic law, were still working in strong spirits.

The organic law states that the present commissioners would leave only after the new EC members take office.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, however, said yesterday that the local administration election date should be determined by the new Election Commission. His remark raised concerns whether the same rule would be applied to the highly anticipated general election that has already been delayed.

Wissanu reiterated that the road map for elections would become clearer around June when all the organic laws were promulgated and when the new EC members were in place.

At a press conference after the vote yesterday, Pornpetch insisted that there were no signals from the powers-that-be although the poll results might have suggested there was a bloc vote at work.

Asked if the failure was because the candidates did not match the preferences of the current rulers, the NLA president maintained that the only preference was they had to match the requirements under the Constitution.

Pornpetch denied any knowledge of why the junta-installed legislators had voted uniformly. He said that because he had been part of the selection committee, he did not take part in yesterday’s activity.

The same selection committee would redo their work. Pornpetch said a high bar had been set for the candidates running for the post, and they would work harder on public relations to reach more people who have the qualifications.

A source, who asked not to be named, said the candidates were questioned closely in the conclave yesterday as there were complaints against all the seven candidates.

Although they had passed the qualifications set by the Constitution, the legislators voted against them because they viewed the EC as having an important role in the holding of an election, the source said.

“We want the EC to be experts and have relevant work experiences. Most of the NLA members did not have confidence in the seven candidates,” he said.

In addition, two candidates selected by the Supreme Court were also found to be controversial, he said.

Earlier, there had been questions on whether the selection process was constitutional, he explained. The NLA was concerned that if these candidates were endorsed, opponents may take the issue to the Constitutional Court which would lead to more complication, he added.

“If the selection process [of the two judges] has been problematic, people might doubt the credibility of the other candidates, too,” he said.

NLA whip spokesman Jate Siratharanont assured that the road map would not be affected because the current EC could still fulfil the responsibilities of holding an election.

Democrat deputy leader Nipit Intrasombat said the vote to reject all the candidates was uncommon.

While the veteran politician did not believe it had anything to do with delaying the election, he said scrutiny is needed to determine why legislators had voted so uniformly.

He said the failure of these seven candidates would make it difficult for future recruitment.

These people had passed the strict qualifying standards and yet were turned down. Others might get scared and not dare to applyfor the posts, Nipit said.

The seven candidates are disqualified from being proposed for the new round.

Meanwhile, Wissanu said the date for the next general election as well as the lifting of ban on political gatherings and activities would be known in June after the MP election bill and Senate bill are promulgated.

He said it was possible that the junta would lift the ban before September. But political parties will have to wait for a Royal Decree on the election date before they start their election campaigns.

Pol General Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) president, said Thailand expects its score to improve to 50 in the index in the next few years by following the set national strategy. He said the latest score and rank only meant it had not yet reached the target, and more needed to be done.

“We should reach a rating of 50 by 2021. We should help one another out,” he added.

The NACC would set up a subcommittee to analyse three sub-indexes with relatively low scores: political process; economy; and administration, Watcharapol said. Reacting to concerns that the drop in score was due to a lack of efficiency in scrutinising corruption among government employees, Watcharapol said no country was able to thoroughly investigate corruption. “However, everything should be gradually improved once things become legally ‘untied’,” he said.

Watcharapol claimed that the government’s “seriousness in fighting corruption” and enforcement of the “anti-graft” charter would be key factors in contributing to overall increased scores in the future.

Deputy PM Wissanu Krea-ngam, the government’s prime legal advisor, admitted that democracy and rule of law may have contributed to the evaluation on Thailand. “It’s not about whether the government is satisfied or not,” the deputy PM said. “We’ll assign the Justice Ministry and the national anti-corruption command centre to fix the remaining weaknesses.”

The deputy PM dismissed the scandal over Deputy PM General Prawit Wongsuwan’s luxury watches as contributing to the CPI.

He said in a separate interview that it was up to Prawit to decide whether he should step down from the board of directors of the Centre for National Anti-Corruption (CNAC).

Mana Nimitmongkol, secretary-general of the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand, said that the slight improvement in Thailand’s score meant much remained to do to fight corruption.

The key points in Thailand’s corruption issues are: patronage system, bribery, lack of good governance in the bureaucratic system and obstruction of access to public information, making it harder for public scrutiny of the government sector.

One area of improvement for the Thai government is it has facilitated and simplified processes with the private and people sectors, with fewer complications, eliminating the need to pay “tea money” to officials.

“However, law enforcement, prosecution of wrongdoers and discretion of people in power remain weak points of the country [in terms of corruption],” Mana said in his Facebook post.

The global coalition against corruption, Transparency International, this year ranked Thailand at 96th, improving from 101st place last year, with a score of 37. The index ranks 180 countries and territories by perceived levels of public-sector corruption over the past year. Nine key assessments are used to compile the index, including the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey.

National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) secretary-general Worawit Sukboon said Thailand’s score had dropped in three assessments involving politics and democracy. Its score rose slightly in three other indexes and remained the same in two more, while Thailand was not assessed for one index.

For instance, the Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index gave Thailand a score of 37, three points lower than last year. Worawit said this assessment likely reflected the perception about investigation of corruption cases “close to the government”; case disclosure, political participation, and press freedom remain weak points although the government had restored and maintained peace and order.

The World Justice Project’s (WJP) Rule of Law Index, on the contrary, gave Thailand 40 points, given the country’s official stance against corruption and recent efforts to suppress corruption via new mechanisms, including creation of a special corruption court, said Worawit. Worldwide, this year’s index found that the majority of countries are making little or no progress in ending |corruption.

The candidates in contention are: Takorn Tantasith, Ruangwit Katesuwan, Issaree Hancharoonroj, Chompan Pongcharoen Sutheerachat, Pracha Terat, Chatchai Chanpraisri and Pakorn Mahannop. They had made the final list from 41 candidates submitted in December.

Under the law, candidates who get a majority of votes would become new EC members. All seven candidates received below the required minimum of 125 of 248 votes and so failed to be selected.

The NLA will submit the results to a selection committee, which will start on a new round in the selection process.

The seven candidates are disqualified from being proposed for the new round.

Thailand’s ranking in the latest global Corruption Perception Index 2017 rose to 96 from 101 last year. Thailand scored 37 this year, up from 35 last year.

The index, prepared by Transparency International, ranks 180 countries and territories by perceived levels of public-sector corruption.

Nine key sources are used to compile the index, including the International Country Risk Guide, Economist Intelligence Unit, and the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey. The ranking uses a scale of 0 to 100, in which 0 is “highly corrupt” and 100 is “very clean”.

“I don’t know. But the score has nothing to do with the [watch] matter,” Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam replied on Thursday when asked if Thailand’s score improved only slightly due to the scandal involving Prawut’s apparently extensive collection of luxury watches.

Regarding concern that the score had dropped due to lack of efficiency in scrutinising corruption among government employees, National Anti-Corruption Commission chairman Pol General Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit said that no country was able to thoroughly investigate corruption.

Wissanu was responding to a call for PM General Prayut Chan-o-cha, to ask Prawit to resign from advising the board of directors of the Centre for National Anti-Corruption (CNAC).

“To resign or not it’s up to Prawit,” responded Wissanu. “And to oust him or not, it depends on another person.” Prawit has never attended meetings of the CNAC, he added.

Tortrakul Yomnak, chairman of a CNAC sub-committee of the board, submitted a letter to Prayut on behalf of the board chairman. The letter called on Prayut to take action against Prawit, by asking the scandal-clad deputy PM to resign from the post.

Prawit has been hit with an ongoing watch scandal since last December, when he was first seen wearing a luxury watch costing more than Bt2 million and a diamond ring. Prawit later was exposed by social media for wearing around 25 luxury watches with a worth estimated to exceed Bt30 million, and failing to declare them in his assets listing to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).

The agency is investigating the origin of the watches. Prawit said they were borrowed from his friends, some of whom had died, and had already returned them to their owners.

The index, prepared by Transparency International, ranks 180 countries and territories by perceived levels of public-sector corruption.

Nine key assessment sources are used to compile the index, including the International Country Risk Guide, Economist Intelligence Unit, and the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey.

On a scale of 0 to 100, in which 0 is “highly corrupt” and 100 is “very clean”, Thailand scored 37 this year, up from 35 last year.

National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) secretary-general Worawit Sukboon said Thailand’s score had dropped in three assessment sources involving politics and democracy.

Its score rose slightly in three other sources and remained the same in two more, he said, while Thailand was not assessed in one source under scrutiny elsewhere.

The Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index gave Thailand a score of 37, three points lower than last year. It considers progress towards democracy and market freedom and particularly examines politics, the economy and administration.

Worawit said this assessment likely reflected the perception that investigations of criminal cases close to the government, case disclosure, political participation and press freedom remain weak points. He pointed out, though, that the government restored and maintains peace and order.

The World Competitiveness Yearbook gave Thailand a score of 43, down one point from last year. Worawit said the organisation compiled data and conducted surveys on executives to measure the country’s competitiveness, and the decreased score likely reflected ineffective law enforcement, despite many laws being amended and enacted.

The Varieties of Democracy Project gave Thailand a score of 23, also down one point from last year.

Worawit noted that V-DEM assessed the degree of democracy, and checks and balances of three pillars. The decreased score could reflect the ongoing undemocratic condition of the country, while the checks-and-balances system remained weak.

The Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), which addressed degrees of corruption based on surveys of local and foreign people doing business in the country, has not given a score to Thailand.

Meanwhile, the International Country Risk Guide’s (ICRG) Political Risk services and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Country Risk Rating repeated the same score as last year for Thailand, 32 and 37 respectively.

Worawit said ICRG focuses on political corruption, particularly bribes, as well as patronage and close political relationships. That Thailand got the same score as last year could be the result of ongoing limitations in the checks-and-balances to regulate the government and administration, a point that the ICRG weights as particularly important.

The EIU’s Country Risk Rating’s assignment of the same score as last year could reflect the perception that abuses of the state budget are an ongoing problem, although budget transparency has improved, Worawit noted.

The country has seen slightly improved scores in three sources of the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey, the World Justice Project’s (WJP) Rule of Law Index, and Global Insight’s Country Risk Rating (GI) with respective scores of 42 (a five-point increase), 40 (a three-point increase), and 35 (a 13-point increase).

Worawit said the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey has given Thailand a higher score than last year, probably the result of the restoration of relationship with the EC and of foreign investors having more positive views on the country’s investment and business contacts with the government.

The World Justice Project’s (WJP) Rule of Law Index might have recognised Thailand’s official stance against corruption and recent efforts to suppress corruption via new mechanisms, including creation of a special corruption court, said Worawit.

The significant improvement in the score from Global Insight Country Risk Rating, appears to reflect a gain in business-sector confidence that public-sector corruption was being suppressed, along with progress in creating an investment-friendly climate, Worawit said.

Worldwide, this year’s index found that the majority of countries are making little or no progress in ending corruption, while further analysis shows journalists and activists in corrupt countries are risking their lives in an effort to speak out.

The index found that more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of 43. “Unfortunately, compared to recent years, this poor performance is nothing new,” noted Transparency International in its Wednesday press release.

This year, New Zealand and Denmark ranked highest with scores of 89 and 88 respectively.

In the Asia Pacific, this year’s index results continued to show a high variance in public-sector corruption across the region.

From top scorers New Zealand and Singapore, to some of the worst scorers – Cambodia, North Korea and Afghanistan – more than half of the countries in the Asia Pacific scored below 50 on the index.

In fact, on average, the region scored just 44, the organisation said.

With a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 means very clean and 0 reflects a deep-rooted, systemic corruption problem, the Asia Pacific countries, on average, are failing, the organisation points.

The candidates in contention are: Takorn Tantasith, Ruangwit Katesuwan, Issaree Hancharoonroj, Chompan Pongcharoen Sutheerachat, Pracha Terat, Chatchai Chanpraisri and Pakorn Mahannop.

They had made the final list from 41 candidates in December. A spokesman for the inspecting committee, Somchai Sawangkarn, said on Wednesday that the credentials of all the candidates were sound and they were all qualified to join the Election Commission if endorsed by the NLA.

However, it depended on the NLA whether to pick all the seven candidates, Somchai said.

Somchai explained with an example that if the NLA voted in favour of five people, their nominations would be submitted for royal endorsement. The selection committee, meanwhile, would find two more candidates to fill up the vacancies, he said.

After the new commissioners were officially approved, the current batch would leave office, he said.

The replacement of the EC members was required by the new organic law governing the agency.

Somchai elaborated that after scrutiny all the seven finalists were found to be clean. He clarified that although Takorn, who is currently the secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), had 300 lawsuits against him they were all administrative cases resulting from his position at the NBTC, and not for crime or immoral activities.

Ruangwit, the former rector of Chaiyaphum Rajabhat University, has been accused of frequently missing meetings. However, his absence was due to health reasons and he had produced medical certificates, Somchai said.

The two candidates selected by judges of the Supreme Court, Chatchai and Pakorn, were controversial after questions were raised if the selection process was constitutional.

The Court had insisted that the process was in line with the supreme law. The NLA inspecting committee agreed that they did not need to discuss the matter as it was not within their authority.

Candidates who get a majority of votes would become the new EC members.

Nuttaa Mahattana and Veera Somkwamkid filed their petition with the court’s 11 judges.

They are facing charges of allegedly breaking the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Order No 3/2015, which prohibits any political assembly of five or more people.

The order has been the ruling junta’s tool to freeze not only political parties, which have been unable to hold official meetings since the order was issued shortly after the 2014 military coup, but also various public forums, academic seminars and assemblies critical of people in power.

Nuttaa, Veera and 37 other activists, students and journalists were charged after they participated in anti-junta demonstrations on January 27 and February 10, during which they called for the long-delayed election to be held in November, as promised.

Nuttaa said the power gained by the junta due to the coup should be less than the Constitution, which is regarded as the highest law in the country.

She said the charter’s Article 3 stipulates that the country’s sovereignty belongs to the people, Article 4 says that all people should have their rights and freedom equally protected, and Article 5 states that any law or order must not conflict with the Constitution.

Nuttaa also highlighted the charter’s Article 44, which endorses people’s rights to assemble peacefully without weapons. She said people should have their right of assembly to voice dissent against the military-installed government.

“The right to assemble is endorsed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” she said. “Today, with no opposition in the [junta-appointed] legislative assembly and with more restrictions against the press, assembling should be our solution to protect our rights and freedoms.”

Veera said that he does not accept the authority of the coup-makers.

“This petition should clarify the Constitution’s superiority,” he said. “The NCPO order should no longer be above the charter and keep infringing on people’s rights and freedoms.”

Veera said elected governments would be more open to scrutiny rather than the military-installed administration with sweeping power.

The activists both said they still had faith in the justice system despite the current political atmosphere.

“I have high trust in the court. There should be no reasons to prolong this [junta order] further,” Nuttaa added.

They were among 85 protesters affiliated with the former People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) who called themselves “Sriwichai Warriors”. The defendants acted as security guards during the PAD’s demonstrations against the government of Samak Sundaravej, which was accused by the protesters of being a proxy for former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The Supreme Court also upheld the Appeals Court’s verdict that suspended the imprisonment of six defendants who were minors when the offences were committed the offences. The Criminal Court in December 2010 sentenced the six to jail terms of three and four months each.

The 85th defendant has escaped the reach of the law. The protesters, some of them armed, broke into the station’s office on August 22, 2008 and remained until August 25, during which they accused of damaging property.

The defendants faced a host of criminal charges ranging from night-time trespassing and illegally carrying firearms to instigating unrest and being part of a criminal association. However, the court acquitted them over the criminal-association charge.

The convicted defendants were taken to prison by Corrections Department officials after the Supreme Court verdict yesterday.

The top court yesterday also ordered arrest warrants to be issued for five defendants who failed to show up yesterday. The reading of the verdict was postponed three times last year as some of the defendants failed to appear.

Pathompong Jongsaksawat, 26, a community development specialist working with the organic farming network Punsuk [happiness sharing], told The Nation that he was not fully confident given the lack of consistency in the government policies.

“Last year, we managed to found this network thanks to the budget allocated from the Pracharat scheme. But then, it got discontinued and we just had to find other sources of funding,” he said. “And now they have launched this new policy, Thai Niyom. So, I don’t know where this would lead to. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Pathompong, who also participated in the event yesterday, said that Prayut appeared to take the matter seriously as he listened to the agriculturists’ problems and ordered officials to receive complaints. But Pathompong was unsure whether or not to support Prayut in the next election.

“I have to see how much his policies achieve. I’m also open to see policies presented by other parties. And I’ll decide when the time comes,” he said.

The remarks followed Prayut’s visit to the province to kick off the scheme, which is aimed at diagnosing people’s problems at the local level and solving them.

The government picked Nakhon Pathom province to launch the project as it is one of the country’s prime organic farming and land rights promotion areas.

Prayut, along with his concerned ministers, including Agriculture Minister Grisada Boonrach, paid a visit to Laembua agricultural learning centre in Nakhon Chaisri district and a few other locations to see the first agricultural land reform plots in the country.

Prayut told people there that the government’s Thai Niyom committees would visit 70,000 villages nationwide and ask people about their problems so that it can tackle them at their roots.

Thai Niyom, he said, is the concept that every Thai favours doing a good deed for the sake of public interest and others. He himself adheres to this principle, Prayut said, saying that he is not a politician, but a retired soldier who understands the people’s plight.

His government visited Nakhon Pathom to see how it could help connect elements in the farming sector for better productivity and prices.

Farm produce, he said, tends to be taken as “political produce”, while his government is trying to ensure that is not the case.

His government, he said, had come to learn about the people’s problems and solve them although it would take time.

As the problems have been fixed and the election comes, he urged them to vote for the best choice.

“We come today not to make you love us, but to solve the problems. We will take care of every one of you farmers, but you have to sympathise with us too, as Thailand has 74,000 villages and all have problems of their own,” said Prayut. He urged them to help the government and then vote for a government for all Thais, not just their own.