womble

EC panel recommend charges against Thaksin

An investigative panel has recommended the Election Commission to charge outgoing Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra for contracting small parties to contest the April 2 vote, an offence punishable by the dissolution of his Thai Rak Thai Party.

The panel's report was submitted to EC chairman Vasana Puemlarp on Monday and seen by The Nation Thursday.

By an unanimous decision, the panel concluded that the ruling party was involved in the campaign fraud deemed detrimental to democracy and the national security both.

The report was prepared by panel chairman Nam Yimyaem, retired vice president of the Supreme Court who was handpicked by Vasana to get to the bottom of the matter.

Vasana appointed the Nam Yimyaem panel last month to look into a complaint against the ruling party filed by Democrat Party secretary general Suthep Thuagsuban.

In his report, Nam said his investigation focused on two key questions - whether the ruling party had paid candidates from small parties to contest the polls and the number of culprits involved.

On the first question, the ruling party was accused of contracting small parties in order to avoid running an unopposed race which would require a minimum support from 20 per cent of eligible voters to validate the balloting outcome.

Based evidence, the panel found that two small parties, Thai Ground and Pattana Chat Thai, had insufficient funds to finance their candidates.

Chawakan Tosawat, candidate from Pattana Chat Thai, gave his statement detailing the financial link between his party and the ruling party.

The panel later uncovered evidence to substantiate the Chawakan statement.

Ratima Phawasri, party-list candidate from Thai Ground, testified about the funding from the ruling party. She also submitted financial records to back up her statement.

Even though she later retracted her statement, her signatures on the financial records remain the physical evidence to implicate her.

Her party leader Boonitthiphol Chinrat confirmed that his party was not in the financial position to fund its candidates.

In regard to culprits involved, the panel found that a total of 140 candidates from the two small parties had filed false records for party membership in order to qualify for the race.

It singled out two Thai Rak Thai executives, Thamarak Isarangura and Pongsak Ruktapongpisal, as masterminds in the funding of small parties.

"The campaign violations committed by the two executives have benefitted their ruling party helping it to cling to the state power via means not sanctioned by the Constitution," it said.

The violations have also undermined the national security and constituted a number of offences as per the Criminal Code and the election law, it added.

Two senior military officers, General Trairong Intharathat and Lt General Padungsak Klingsanoh, were implicated in the violations in their capacity as aides to Thamarak, who is also the defence minister.

The panel recommended for the legal proceedings against Thaksin on grounds that he be held accountable for his party's involvement in the campaign violations.

Nation

What a dispicable individual this Vassana is turning out to be, surely not acting on evidence is a crime, and using the evidence to further his own cause is truly wrong, he should be locked up!

That's a very good point and I expect the EC will be trying to hold on desperatley.

One thing though, where would any disgruntled party member jump ship to?

The Demorcrats are a complete joke, they have absolutley no policies, where is there manifesto? As far as I can see their only policy is to get rid of TRT and Thaksin. The party has been utter rubbish at highlighting the failiures of TRT and it's policies. Fair enough the clamping down on media has made it more difficult, but they need to find other ways of making themselves heard, and I don't mean street ralies. They need to get into the communities, explain the problems with corruption and the truth behind all the failing policies, then tell the electorate how their policies will be of greater benefit than those of TRT.

It seems to me all the Demorcrats are doing is waiting for TRT mistakes to capitalise on, they need to be more proactive.

If I had a vote it wouldn't be cast for a party that has no clear stance on future policies should it win, mind you neigher would I vote for a party so corrupt and full of nepotism, that it makes the country unable to compete on the same level as many of it's neighbours, and frequently embarresses itself with mindboggling greed and graft.

There really is no box worth ticking.

As long as cabinet positions are dished as favours for financial support or faction alliance instead of to those who really have the qualifications and understanding to excell in the positions I guess it will remain that way.

The new election will be held within 60 days

The Constitution Court's official ruling has stated that the new election will be held within 60 days after HM the King endorsed the royal decree on the new election.

The ruling was issued after the Court nullified the April 2 election and ordered a new election.

The ruling said the new election should be held sixty days after the Royal decree on the new election is effective.

The Nation

90-120 days would be fairer

Parinya vows to stay put

Election Commissioner Parinya Nakchattree Wednesday vowed to stay put although the three top courts have advised the EC to resign.

Parinya told a group of people, who came from his native province of Chum Phon, that he would not resign but he would allow courts to step in to help supervise the new election.

Nation

Massive loss of face for EC, but they will loose even more the longer they try to hold on to their positions. It also risks throwing the country back into crisis. For the good of the Nation and democracy the best thing they could do is step down, before they look even more stupid.

There have been plenty of reports of people getting some kind of knock-out drug in Bangkok and Pattaya. What they were given, I don't know, but what they usually lost was their money.

Ok true, but I don't think telling the police and having border runners have to put up with increased chances of being searched is the key.

Criminals such as muggers or rapists will find a way to carry out their crimes regardless, informing the police force of smuggling routes is not the solution, besides i'm sure they're fully aware of the contraband that passes through.

Court rules iTV concession fee cut illegal

The Central Administrative Court Tuesday overturned an arbitration decision in 200 4 which significantly cut the concession fees paid by iTV to the PM's Office.

Judge Prapot Klaisuban said the arbitration committee exceeded its authority in changing details of the contract between iTV and the PM's Office.

Chaiwat Maraprygsavan, a lawyer for iTV, said the company will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Administrative Court.

Nation

Apparently it is available in packs of 5 powder satchets for a few hundred baht a pop........ Has anyone else heard of this highly dangerous product for sale at "visa tour" destinations?

I haven't seen or heard about anything like this in Pattaya, or on my border runs to Ban Laem. Sounds like maybe the BiB should be tipped off ?

Just because they're selling them doesn't mean they are targeting potential rapists, these drugs are surprisingly popular among abusers and there's definatley a market now it's harder to get hold of in Thailand. By informing the authorities your only increasing the chances of people being busted with excess whiskey, viagra etc. I should imagine of the total number of people that missuse rohpnol and other such drugs only a very small fraction use them for what you are implying.

I guess you moved to Thailand when you got fed up of eating old chease back home.

If you can't earn more than the women around you, move to somewhere where the women are poorer.

The next few days will be extremely interesting, will the EC resign, will Thaksin take part in the election, will the date for the election be set at more than 90 days.

This ruling has not by a long shot settled the issues at hand, far from it, it's opened up a whole new can of worms!

The six who voted that the election results were constitutional are:

Sak Techacharn, Pol Gen Suwan Suwanvechoe, Manit Wittayatem, Jumpol na Songkhla, Suthee Suthisomboon and Suwit Theerapong.

The five who ruled against a new election:

Sak Techacharn, Suwan Suwanvechoe, Jumpol na Songkhla, Suthee Suthisomboon and Suwit Theerapong.

The eight judges who voted to reject the petition for investigating irregulairites in the shin sale were:

Parn Jantrapan, Jumpol na Songkhla, Nopadol Heng-jaroen, Manit Witayatem, Sakdi Techacharn, Sutee Suthisom-boon, Suwan Suwanvecho and Ura Wang-orm-Klang.

THAILAND: Judge 'lobbied' in PM's assets case (bangkok post, oct 14 2004)

Defence witness Wasant Soipisut, president of Court of Appeals Region 7, told the court yesterday that before the Constitution Court handed down its verdict in the Thaksin case one of the eight judges, Jumpol na Songkhla, asked him if he could rule the prime minister innocent on the grounds that he had not breached article 295 of the constitution.

The eight who rules in Thaksins favour in the 2001 asset concealment case were:

Kramol Thongthammachart, Pan Chantarapan, Jumpol na Songkhla and Sak Techacharn, Preecha Chalermvanich, Jul Atirek, Suchinda Yongsunthorn and Anand Ketwong.

Only three of the eight were present today, two voted in favour of letting the election results stand, one of the three present at both trials voted to annul the election.

Last night I had a facinating discussion with a Thai friend, he has been to university and comes from Bangkok, in the last election voted TRT. I asked him what he thought about the protests and Thaksin and he said he wanted Thaksin to stay he told me he was good for Thailand.

We talked about corruption and he said this was normal and expected from anyone in high office, he said what would be the point in getting to such a high position if you couldn't benefit financially from it. I asked him what he thought about making policys to benefit his business and he concluded this was normal and to be expected.

He said the chance of having a government in Thailand that didn't abuse it's power to enrich itself was close to zero and he told me that the very large majority of Thai people have no problem with this.

Before he wanted Thaksin to stay, but now he says he must go to ensure there is no violence, but for him the main reason he wants him to leave is so His Majesty the king doesn't have intervene and he says more and more Thai people want Thaksin to step down. Not because they have a problem with the corruption or anything else, but because they are scared if he stays there will be violence and the King will have to intervene.

He says many Thais are more outraged that Shin was sold to foriegners than the non payment of taxes and he said anti foriegn sentiment was definatley rising in Thai society as a result of the sale.

He thinks the next government may take strict measures against foriegn ownership as it will be a sure vote winner, it all depends on whether their own business interests benefit or not from involvement from foriegners.

His assesement is that expats will almost certainly be better off under Thaksin than whoever may take over as from the sale of Shin any leader that wants to be popular will take an anti foriegn policy unless it affects their own business interests.

Whilst this is one mans view it makes a lot of sense, so whilst many dislike Thaksin for his authoritarian stance, the other options will most likely be far worse. Bars may well open later and Bangkok will again be a great party city, but on many other fronts foriegners will not be so lucky.

He will almost certainly win re-election although with a reduced majority.

He's called the elction because he knows he's in serious trouble and knows he will still win through the rural vote, even though they are voting whilst being misinformed, if they really knew the truth and got unbiased media reports it could be quite different.

The fact he is disolving the house shows he is in serious trouble, the campaigners should absolutley not accept this and carry on with the rally accepting nothing less that his total resignation and exit from politics. If they carry on with the protests it's more than likley they will get what they want.

There's no way a crook like this should be allowed to stand for re-election.

He should be behind bars.

Obviously another smokescreen for the Thai press, keeps the peoples minds off other more pressing issues that the government don't want people discussing.

I'm sure they'll be lots more in the coming days and weeks.

Surprised Wattana has taken so long to come out of the woodwork, he's normally the first to say something stupid for the press anytime the PM is in trouble.

I would say almost certainly that there will be no Rally this weekend. I'm no expert on political matters here but I would say the risk of violence increases every time one of these rallies os held, and no one wants that, so the sooner this is all sorted out the sooner the country gets back on track.

Of course this is speculation, but I see two possible outcomes (although there could of course be many more)

1.) A snap election (which taksin will win and prove he still has a mandate).

2.) a re-write of parts of the constitution but thaksin staying as leader.

Not sure about that, but we were flicking through channels and caught the end of a news story on mcot. My gf says that it said the government or at least some of them have been called for a meeting tomorow, at the palace I believe. I'm not exactly sure of the details as we caught the end of the story, maybe someone else saw the whole of the story.

Pretty sure it's a coincedence cos there's also all of these companies and they look to be set up as mutual fund companies or something similar.

I fail to see why it would be of any gain for them to have a Britsh registered company anyway, wouldn't they have to pay tax????

04219271 UKLS FINANCIAL PLANNING LIMITED

03715118 UKLS FINANCIAL SERVICES LIMITED

04239935 UKLS INVESTMENT SERVICES 2 LIMITED

03090413 UKLS INVESTMENT SERVICES LIMITED

00871653 UKLS INVESTOR 1 LIMITED

04239911 UKLS INVESTOR 2 LIMITED

03824695 UKLS INVESTOR 3 LIMITED

03429485 UKLS INVESTOR 4 LIMITED

Check this out for an interesting coinceidence then,

The company was dormant for years at least 20 years infact, and then suddenly became active again end 2000, it has then been very active since then.

https://secure.creditgate.com/search/search...&BT=Full%20Data

Zimbabwe?

I know Mugabe don't like us very much, dunno if US etc need visa's too tho, probobally.

i've explained this in other threads but i'll repeat this here.

Singapore has had a long held rivalry with Air Asia of Malaysia. In trying to protect its own budget airlines (Tiger, Valuair/Jetstar Asia), it has continually denied Air Asia landing rights in Singapore. Air Asia turned around and signed a joint venture with Shin Corp so that they could have access to the Thai market instead.

While the Temasek buyout of Shin Corp is mainly a telco deal, it also disguises a secondary play on Air Asia. Now Temasek owns 51% of Thai Air Asia, they will force Air Asia to dilute its shareholding here or else face losing its license. Temasek probably wants Air Asia to end up losing its license, so it can replace it with Tiger Airways or some other singapore budget airline, or at the very least, create a more level playing field for its home grown carriers.

The most interesting thing about the Shin corp buyout to me is not Thaksin's bundle of tax free cash, but how it reveals Temasek's brilliant but ruthless strategic approach. The budget airline industry is being reshaped before our eyes. The government is probably doing Temasek a favour by denying Thai Air Asia its license right now.

Very clever indeed!!!

Sneaky!

But Clever!

link doesn't show seach.

Maybe you could cut and paste details of search.

If it was set up in 1966, i think thats defo not it, and from the looks of things I can see no ample rich co.

BANGKOK, Feb 8 (TNA) – Revenue collection by the government in January exceeded a target by around 200 million baht, according to Finance Ministry Spokesman Somchai Sajjapongse.

So that means the tax from the Shin deal would equal a staggering 25% of the national monthly collection!!!!!

Last month, he revealed the government managed to collect net revenue of 99.74 billion baht, which is 209 million baht higher than targeted earlier.

The collection through a value-added tax and corporate tax was 1.72 and 1.26 billion baht or 5.2 and 11.3 per cent higher than targeted respectively.

As well, revenue remitted by state enterprises to the state coffer was 1.56 billion baht or 27.5 per cent beyond the target.

Mr. Somchai, who is also the director-general of the Fiscal Policy Office, said the revenue collection in the first four months of the fiscal 2006 was 372.88 million baht, which is 4.18 billion baht or 1.1 per cent higher than projected.

The higher-than-expected collection resulted from the better-than-targeted collection of taxes by 8.7 per cent by the Revenue Department and the higher-than-projected remittance of revenue by 20.5 per cent by state enterprises.

However, he said, the revenue collection by the Excise and Customs Departments was lower than targeted.

(tna)

So there's Ample Rich BVI, also the Ample Rich office/subsidiary in Singapore , which the reporter tried to trace, and now a 3rd? English company of similar/same name? Let's hope the latter isn't incorporated in the UK - laws against insider-trading tend to be a little stricter in place like the UK or USA, than the BVI.

Easy enough to check http://www.companieshouse.co.uk

Can search on whether Ample Rich was incorporated in the UK and who its directors are for free. Unfortunately its closed until 7am UK time so will check again this afternoon

Did a search, can't find anthing by name of ample rich. Or anything similar.

I know that most embassys prefer people to apply in their own countries, the UK embassy certainly does.

He He, this is so dodgy!

These casino's will be aimed at thai's not international large stakes players like in Singapore. They will be thai owned and managed which will make them of little interest to the big players.

Singapore know you need help from experts which is why they are bringing in foriegn firms to run them.

This is nothing more than a money spinner for someone, a very big one!