By Thai Newsroom Reporters
LAST YEAR’S senatorial rigging allegations were today (March 6) collectively handled as a special case for the Department of Special Investigation to find and bring to justice any guilty perpetrators.
The Special Lawsuit Committee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and consisting of 22 high-ranking government officials, today resolved to adopt the electoral rigging, bloc-voting scandals surrounding 138 out of a total 200 senators, plus two held in reserve for senior lawmakers, as a special case under which in-depth investigation will be carried out by the DSI in cooperation with the Election Commission which has so far failed to press charges against anyone.
Given personal and material witnesses, the DSI is legally empowered to press illegal conspiracy and money-laundering charges against any of the 138 suspected senators allegedly involved in the electoral fraud orchestrated by yet-unnamed persons covertly connected with the Bhumjaithai, the second largest coalition partner, under de facto party boss Newin Chidchob.
Scripts of electoral numbers for certain senatorial candidates had been literally prepared by politically-associated persons and handed out to those winning contestants and others throughout the triple-tiered, complicated races to parliament.
The DSI has been reportedly tracking circulations of cash transferred online via bank accounts of the suspected senators, evidently fueling money-laundering charges against them and the electoral rigging organizers.
Most of the winning contestants had been allegedly provided by the rigging organizers free lodging and feasts with hush-hush meetings with the rigging organizers at hotels in the vicinity of Muang Thong Thani convention centre where the national-level senatorial elections were held, thus evidently substantiating the illegal conspiracy charges.
All detectable assets possessed by the suspected senators may be seized and withheld by the authorities, pending court rulings on the electoral rigging, bloc-voting plots.
If finally found guilty as charged, those suspected senior lawmakers, many of whom have apparently performed in support of Newin’s camp at parliament, could possibly be immediately deprived of their senatorial status.
CAPTION:
Deputy Prime Minister/Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, centre, flanked by Justice Minister Thavi Sodsong and Ms. Phongsawat Nilayothin, permanent secretary of the Justice Ministry, talking to the press after DSI’s decision to take up the senatorial rigging scandals as a special case today, March 6, 2025. Top photo: Thai Rath, Front Page photo: Amarin TV
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