People’s Party attacks Constitutional Court for closing comments on opinion survey but requesting budget for confidence survey, questions ‘Election Commission – Public Prosecutor’ requesting budget for training
The House of Representatives meeting, chaired by Mr. Pichet Chueamuangphan, the 2nd Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, considered the draft bill on the annual budget for fiscal year 2025, 2nd-3rd readings, for the last day. Entered Section 31 of the Court, budget of 8,725,721,200 baht, in which many MPs of the Prachachon Party came up to debate the budget of the Constitutional Court, such as Ms. Sasinan Thamnithinan, MP for Bangkok, Prachachon Party, who discussed the course on the rule of law for democracy (UDD) of the Constitutional Court, saying that it used a budget of 8.8 million baht as a connection course. When looking at the project itself, it could not achieve its objectives at all. What was done was not about the rule of law, but more about practicing Dhamma. Some projects went
to practice Dhamma as far as India and Nepal. It is a course for democracy or practicing Dhamma. When looking at the list of alumni of the project, it is no different from a family reunion. Many generations have the same surname. Fathers graduated, mothers continued their studies, children continued their studies. There are people in the military, politicians, 2/3 of the names are important people in the government. He is also a minister in this government. Importantly, the president of the court also graduated from this course. Three out of the nine judges are judges who graduated from the same course. These courses should not exist in an organization that relies on credibility and neutrality. I request to cut the entire budget for this project in order to guarantee neutrality so that the court can perform its judicial duties independently.
Ms. Rakchanok Srinok, Bangkok MP of the Prachachon Party, discussed that the Constitutional Court requested a budget of 1 million baht for the project to survey public c
onfidence in the administration of justice of the Constitutional Court via online to survey public opinion on the Constitutional Court. However, when checking the Constitutional Court’s Facebook page, it had closed comments, preventing people from expressing their opinions. However, they requested a budget of 1 million baht to survey public opinion online. Is this requesting a budget that contradicts their actions? If they opened a channel to allow people to express their opinions without limits, for free, they don’t know if they were cowardly or not to dare to open a channel to comment. Surveying public opinion does not require a single baht. They just need to open comments for people to express their opinions. After the members had discussed it thoroughly, the meeting voted to approve the said measure.
Then there was a discussion on Section 32, independent organizations and the public prosecutor, with a budget of 10,327, 613,900 baht, by Mr. Kantapong Prayurasak, Bangkok MP, Prachachon Party, who raised th
e issue of the budget of the EC and the Office of the Attorney General, which had a combined training budget of 425 million baht, of which 256 million baht was for the EC, in 3 areas: elections, network strengthening, and democracy, while the Office of the Attorney General had a training budget of 168 million baht. It seemed that the training budget was too much. Combining the 2 organizations is called a national training enterprise.
While Mr. Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana, MP for the Ruam Thai Sang Chart Party, discussed that he would like to observe the work of the EC regarding the giving of yellow or red cards, which has never happened, especially in the recent Senate elections that the public was watching closely. They must restore confidence. Whoever does wrong must be punished. After a complete debate, the meeting voted to approve Article 32.
Source: Thai News Agency