#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40024799

Thailand, Malaysia unite to restore peace in deep South

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Thailand and Malaysia on Friday agreed to work together to end decades of insurgency on the Thai side of their shared border.

Visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim met with Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan at a Bangkok hotel on Friday to discuss security issues involving the kingdom’s restive southern border region.

Both sides agreed to work together to end insurgent violence in the Muslim-majority provinces and pave the way for development in border areas, a source said.

Their goal is to improve the quality of life for people on both sides of the border, the source said.

Both sides agreed to work more closely on security and intelligence to build social and cultural trust, the source said, adding that Malaysia regards the insurgency issue as Thailand’s internal problem but offers its full support to solve it.
 

The source described Malaysia’s recent appointment of its facilitator as a “good sign” for the ongoing peace talks between Thai authorities and Muslim insurgent leaders.

Anwar is confident that the peace talks under Prawit’s leadership will succeed in ending violence and insurgency in the deep South, according to the source.

The Malaysian leader is on an official visit to Thailand. He met with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at Government House in Bangkok on Thursday. 

In December last year, Prawit paid a courtesy call to newly elected PM Anwar at his official residence in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Their discussion focused on strengthening bilateral ties and reducing unrest in Thailand’s deep South. During Prawit’s visit, Malaysian officials recommitted to facilitating peace talks between the Thai government and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, a group pushing for independence for Thailand’s Malay Muslim-majority southern provinces.

Anwar reportedly assured Prawit that his government would facilitate the peace talks, which were halted during Malaysia’s election in November. They are expected to resume soon.

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40024791

Democrat linked to online gambling no longer in the party: spokesman

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2023

The coalition’s Democrat Party maintained on Friday that a former election candidate who is suspected of being involved in an illegal online gambling business has left the party.

Democrat spokesman Ramate Rattanachaweng said Ekachai Khajonboonthavorn contested the 2019 general election as a party-list candidate, but he has quit the party “for some time already”.

He also said that nothing out of the ordinary popped up when Ekachai’s background and qualifications were being checked ahead of the elections.

“There were no legal problems that would prohibit a person from contesting in the election. The party took the usual steps prescribed by law,” the spokesman said.

Ramate added that since this former election candidate had left the party, any action that is deemed illegal should be dealt with through the justice process.

He added that the Democrat Party has a clear policy of not supporting any illegal activities like online gambling, and maintained that the party does not accept financial support from those involved in underground businesses.

Calling on the police to take legal action against those involved with grey and dark businesses, he said the Democrat Party will not interfere in the justice procedure.

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40024769

Election Commission ‘fully prepared for early vote’

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 09, 2023

Election Commission secretary general Sawang Boonmee on Thursday declined to confirm May 7 as the date of the general election, but he said the commission is prepared to organise an early election if the House of Representatives is dissolved before its term ends.

In response to a question on whether a House dissolution expected in early March would affect the commission’s tentative schedule of May 7 for the next general election, Sawang said that the agency was well prepared for any possible date.

The current House of Representatives’ four-year term ends on March 23 so a House dissolution in early March would not have any significant impact on the commission’s preparations to organise the election, he said.

When asked if the election date would still be May 7, he responded: “Do I still have to answer that question?”

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha is empowered by the Constitution to dissolve the Lower House before its term ends, which will result in an earlier election date.

Sawang also said on Thursday that the commission has improved its vote-reporting system to rectify flaws in the system used in the last general election in March 2019.

The updated system will report unofficial results of the vote count in real time with accuracy and speed, he said.

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40024766

‘Renegade’ Thammanat and followers return to ruling party

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 09, 2023

Captain Thammanat Prompao, once called a renegade of the ruling Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), has led 11 other Settakij Thai Party MPs back into the arms of the ruling party.

Thammanat and 20 MPs loyal to him were expelled from the PPRP in January 2022 for allegedly planning to topple Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha in a censure debate.

The group then joined the Settakij Thai Party, which Thammanat later took control of as party leader.

However, after Prayut formally severed his ties with the PPRP by joining the United Thai Nation Party and announcing his intention to become its prime ministerial candidate, speculation has been rife that Thammanat and his group would return to the PPRP.

On Monday, Thammanat, who is close to PPRP leader and Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan, and the other 11 members of his party began the process of re-applying to become members of the PPRP. As a result, all of them lost their MP status immediately because they had resigned from their party to join a new one.

The 11 Settakij Thai MPs, who followed Thammanat to the ruling party, are Phai Lik (Kamphaeng Phet), Jiradej Sriwiraj (Phayao), Kasem Suparanon (Nakhon Ratchasima), Sathira Puakpraphan (Chonburi), Pornchai Insook (Phichit), Panya Jinakham (Mae Hong Son), Jomkwan Klubbankoh (Samut Sakhon), Thassanaporn Ketmethikarun (Nakhon Ratchasima), Pakphum Boolpramook (Tak), Yutthana Pothasuthon (party-list) and Somsak Khunngern (Khon Kaen).

Two other party-list MPs of the Thammanat group – Boonsing Warinrak and Yongyuth Thepjamnong – previously rejoined the PPRP.

In another development, a key faction of the PPRP – the Sam Mitr (“Three Friends”) group – has reportedly sent some members to join the Pheu Thai Party.

On Monday, Sukhothai MP Chusak Khirimathong – who is close to Justice Minister Somsak Thepsutin – resigned as a PPRP member to run for a House seat in Sukhothai as a Pheu Thai candidate. Somsak is a co-leader of the Sam Mitr group.

It has been reported that the Sam Mitr group, which once supported Prayut as the prime minister, is distributing its members to various parties so that it will still have a chance to retain some power after the election.

Earlier, two Sam Mitr members – Phudit Insuwan, former Phichit MP, and Chakkawal Chaiwiratkul, former Sukhothai MP – announced they would be Pheu Thai candidates in their respective provinces.

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40024758

EC justifies House seats calculation, rejects Wissanu’s advice to seek court opinion

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 09, 2023

The Election Commission on Thursday defended its decision to include stateless people in calculating the distribution of House seats and has no intention to seek a ruling on the issue from the Constitutional Court.

EC chairman Ittiporn Boonprakong insisted that the EC had complied with Section 86 of the Constitution by counting stateless people in Thailand as part of the population when calculating the distribution of 400 constituency House seats in 77 provinces nationwide.

Ittiporn said Section 86 stated that the EC must distribute the number of constituency House seats based on the population announced by the household registrar of the Provincial Administration Department in the year before the general election.

Ittiporn said the the country’s population numbers announced by the department included stateless people who lived in Thailand.

He added that the EC had used the same principle in distributing House seats in previous elections.

As of December 31, Thailand’s population was 66,090,475, and the drawing up of constituencies was based on the formula of one MP for 164,226 Thais.

Based on this formula, Bangkok would have 33 MPs, Nakhon Ratchasima 16 MPs, and Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai, and Ubon Ratchathani 11 MPs, for example.

Ittiporn was reacting to a comment by Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngarm, who said earlier this week that it was not right for the EC to count stateless people when calculating the number of MPs for each province.

Wissanu argued that stateless people cannot vote although they are counted as part of Thailand’s population by the Provincial Administration Department. Wissanu said counting them would distort the number of House seats, especially in border provinces where there are a lot of stateless people.

Wissanu suggested that the EC seek a ruling from the Constitutional Court on the matter.

Replying to a question by a reporter about Wissanu’s suggestion, Ittiporn dug his heels in and said the EC had no intention to approach the Constitutional Court.

Ittiporn was speaking to reporters after he met and consulted with representatives of political parties on the ceiling on spending for each political party and election candidate during the election campaign.

The meeting, which was held at the EC head office, also discussed rules for putting up campaign signs and how parties would conduct primaries before selecting candidates.

Ittiporn said the EC Office had prepared three models for setting the ceiling on spending, which were discussed with political parties during the meeting on Thursday.

In the first model, each candidate would be allowed to spend no more than 6.5 million baht and a party 152 million baht if the House completes its term on March 22. If the House were to be dissolved before completion of its term, the ceiling would be reduced to 1.74 million and 40.6 million baht, respectively.

The first model took into account the daily minimum wage rates, the consumer price index and diesel price as well as prices of plywood and vinyl boards, Ittiporn said.

He said the second model also took into account opinions of the Finance Ministry, the Bank of Thailand and the Commerce Ministry while the third model also took into account the inflation rate.

Ittiporn said the EC Office would later consider the opinions of those who had attended the meeting and make the decision on the ceiling on election spending by candidates and parties.https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40024500

Related story:

EC takes another step towards general election with approval of 400 constituencies

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40024753

Prayut drops huge hint there will be no early election

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 09, 2023

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha dropped a big hint on Wednesday that the general election will be held in May this year.

Whether deliberate or not, Prayut’s reference to a “May election” as he answered reporters’ questions effectively silenced speculation he would dissolve Parliament to call an early election.

The Election Commission has set a tentative date of May 7 for the national poll, based on the Constitution’s rule that an election must be held within 45 days of the end of the House of Representatives’ four-year term. The current House term ends on March 23.

Answering media questions on Wednesday, Prayut said he did not know how long he would be interim premier until a new government is formed “after the May election”.

Prayut was speaking after chairing this year’s first meeting of the National Strategy and Reform Committee. Also in attendance were Senate president Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, House Speaker Chuan Leekpai, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Kreu-Ngam and Interior Minister General Anupong Paochinda.

Prayut told the press after the meeting that the next government could still make adjustments to the National Strategy and Reform plan but cannot cancel it completely as it is mandated by the Constitution. He added this practice has been adopted by many countries.

Prayut said he, Chuan and Wissanu had also discussed the repeated collapse of Parliament meetings due to missing members, plus approaches to speed up the consideration of draft bills that remain pending.

Asked about the Subdistrict Administrative Organization (SAO)’s request to adjust the remuneration for SAO members, Prayut said the Interior Ministry has accepted the request and is considering if the adjustment is possible under the current budget.

Related Stories

EC takes another step towards general election with approval of 400 constituencies

Only 3 parties can contest all 400 constituencies in the next election: EC

Election watchdog rebuts charge it is changing the rules

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40024737

Debate on opposition’s charter amendment bill collapses as senators stay away

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2023

A joint sitting of MPs and senators to discuss a charter amendment bill proposed by the Pheu Thai Party collapsed due to a lack of quorum on Wednesday, as most senators were absent.

The joint House-Senate sitting was scheduled to deliberate on the bill sponsored by the main opposition Pheu Thai to remove the power of senators to join MPs in electing the prime minister.

The meeting started at 11.10am after Parliament President Chuan Leekpai waited for over two hours for MPs and senators to enter the convention hall.

After 342 out of 665 current MPs and senators reported their presence by inserting their parliamentary ID cards into the card readers at their seats, Chuan announced the start of the meeting. A joint sitting requires the presence of 333 members to achieve the quorum.

At that time, only 52 out of 249 senators identified themselves as being present.

However, the meeting could not start deliberations on the bill as Somchai Sawaengkan, a senator, sought a vote on whether the rescheduling of the charter amendment bill atop the meeting agenda violated Parliament’s meeting regulations.

This prompted Chuan to call senators and MPs to reconfirm their presence at 11.28am. After a long wait, Chuan announced at noon that the meeting had to be closed because there were only 308 MPs and senators present.

Chuan added that 15 MPs and 95 senators had informed of their absence before the meeting.

It was reported that deputy Senate speaker, General Singsuek Singprai, had told senators to decline to report their presence in a tactic to deny the quorum and derail the bill.

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40024734

Prayut failed to honour promises made before coup, Chuwit says

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2023

Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha has failed to honour two of the promises he made when he seized power in a coup eight years ago – to eliminate online gambling and corruption, especially among the police, whistleblower Chuwit Kamolvisit said.

When Prayut seized power by toppling the Yingluck Shinawatra government on May 22 2014, he promised to wipe out corruption and crack down on gambling, the former politician and massage parlor wrote on Facebook late Tuesday night.

Prayut has been done to eliminate corruption by police, he said. They are still taking bribes, and this allows social-vice businesses, especially online gambling, to thrive, he added.

“The prime minister has been in power for eight years following the power seizure [for which he] cited corruption as a cause. He has absolute power like Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkham in the past, but he didn’t act to wipe out or lessen corruption,” Chuwit said. “Instead, he has become a part of the system of nepotism that continues without doing anything.”

By noon Wednesday, the post had been “liked” more than 8,800 times, shared over 510 times, and received more than 530 comments.

Chuwit recently exposed several incidents of alleged corruption by police. He also helped organise a press conference in Bangkok at which a Singaporean friend of a Taiwanese actress said Thai police extorted 27,000 baht as a bribe from the actress and her friends at a Bangkok checkpoint early last month.

There are several Chinese triads operating in Thailand because of corruption at the Immigration Bureau, he said.

Online gambling has intensified during the past few years and three key police agencies in charge of suppressing online crimes are instead being used by the officers in charge for personal gain, Chuwit said.

They are the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, Cyber Crime Investigation Division 5, and the Police Cyber Taskforce, he said.

Police set up road checkpoints to extort money from foreign tourists and pass on the biggest share of the bribes to their superiors, Chuwit said.

Money laundering and human trafficking suspects can buy their freedom by paying bribes to senior officials at various levels in the judicial system, he said.

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40024725

Court releases hunger strikers, refuses bail for Thalugaz protesters

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2023

The Criminal Court refused bail release for eight anti-government Thalugaz protesters on Tuesday – the same day it granted temporary release to two activists on hunger strike.

The court ruled that charges against three of the Thalugaz suspects, who are accused of using small explosive devices, were too serious to grant them temporary release.

It added that their bail requests had already been rejected several times.

The court said it would consider granting bail to one suspect after examining his education and job records.

It also ordered probation officers to check the job records and behaviour of the four remaining suspects, adding it would decide on their bail application within 15 days.

The Thalugaz group comprises mainly vocational school and college students. Last year, they clashed with riot police in Bangkok on numerous occasions during protests against the Prayut Chan-o-cha government. In contrast with peaceful anti-government demonstrations, Thalugaz protesters have used firecrackers, glass pellets and flares against riot police, while also setting fire to a patrol car.

Also on Tuesday, the court granted temporary release to Tantawan Tuatulanon and Orawan Phuphong after the health of the two hunger-striking activists reportedly deteriorated to a life-threatening level.

The bail request came from Thammasat University Hospital’s director, who said the pair were now in critical condition after launching their hunger strike on January 18. Tantawan and Orawan are charged with insulting the royal family by conducting a public opinion poll on royal motorcades in February last year. They went on hunger strike to demand an end to prosecution of people for exercising freedom of expression, and repeal of the lese majeste (royal insult) law that carries up to 15 years in jail and the sedition law.

Related stories:

Uthenthawai Campus students protest to demand resumption of on-site classes

Investigation into attack on reporters will be fair: Damrongsak

Police chief warns media to stay away from protest clashes

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/politics/40024710

Prayut non-committal on whether he will run for House seat

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2023

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha said he has yet to decide whether he will contest as a party-list candidate for the United Thai Nation Party (UTNP).

Speaking to reporters after chairing the weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Prayut said he has not yet decided whether he will run for a House seat along with trying to get re-elected as prime minister.

“I still don’t know. I’ll tell you when it’s time,” Prayut said when reporters asked to confirm speculation that he will become UTNP’s first party-list MP.

Prayut had said he would stand as the party’s only PM candidate.

Under the Constitution, Prayut can hold the prime minister’s seat for another two years if re-elected in the next general election, scheduled tentatively for May 7.

Prayut said he has told UTNP’s tentative candidates to be careful while campaigning and avoid criticising coalition partners.

It was earlier reported that some candidates of Bhumjaithai Party, which is a coalition partner, had attacked Prayut in their campaign speeches.

Before the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul was seen approaching the premier for a private chat.

Prayut said Anutin had shown up to explain why members of his party had attacked him while campaigning.

“It’s a non-issue. Anutin met me to explain it,” Prayut said.

Anutin is also the leader of Bhumjaithai Party.