Should Banned Politicians Not Directly Involved In Electoral Fraud Be Given Amnesty?

[thailandlover]

Given the huge numbers of banned politicians due to electoral fraud (ie vote buying etc) should the ones not directly involved in their individual cases be given amnesty? Or should they take responsibility for things done in their name, possibly with (or without) their knowledge?

[noahvail]

Given the huge numbers of banned politicians due to electoral fraud (ie vote buying etc) should the ones not directly involved in their individual cases be given amnesty? Or should they take responsibility for things done in their name, possibly with (or without) their knowledge?

Hmmmm...let's draw an analogy. Right now the law against gambling, as my wife explained it to me, is that everyone within a 1 km radius of a game is subject to arrest; the concept behind the law is that if you were that close, you knew it was going on. If that's a base line, then it's reasonable that the other lawmakers, being in quite close proximity to the ones directly involved, would have known but did nothing. For you lawyers out there, isn't that one of the definitions of consipiracy? But realistically, the only people arrested tend to be the players and those people in the house with them at the time of the raid. So there's selective enforcement at that level, but shold it apply to the higher echelo? I'd kinda hope so.

[Plus]

Actually, TRT was dissolved not for electoral fraud itlsef, but for doing nothing about it. Chaturon, their leader at the time, sealed their own fate when he testified that everyone was aware of the case but no one has done anything to rectify the mistakes for over a year after it had gone public.

Should these guys be excused now?

[brahmburgers]

As much as I don't like the TRT / PPP / Pua Thai politicos, I think the most recent version of the Constitution (with the all-guilty by association edict written in) is unfair.

Ok, it's likely many of the top bananas knew of improprieties going on in their lower ranks, but vote-buying and cheating is endemic to Thai politics, so you might as well say everyone involved in politics is guilty to some degree.

No, I think the ones found guilty should be penalized/fined, whatever, - and their bosses, if it can be proved they knew. However, a blanket penalization of the whole party is too extreme, and it's largely a result of the over-reaching of the coup leaders - in their zeal to punish Thaksin and his cohorts.

[scorecard]

I cannot believe that the TRT & PPP candidates, who weren't actually caught:

- Were unaware of the massive (yes massive) vote buying activities of a large percentage of their party members

- Were unaware of the funding available for vote buying provided by some very big well known people who were already well known for buying votes, playing games with voting procedures, etc.

So, why would an honest candidate (if one exists) want to remain a member of this type of 'gang'.

Given the above, I'm swaying towards the concept of punish all.

Further point, Thailand will never progress and we will never see good schools, state of the art intrastructure, equal opportunuty for all, equal and fair justice for all, whilst we continue with the current levels of massive corruption, and the initial mechanism to get into a position to get your fingers into the budget pies is through vote buying and buying your way into the gang.

Stopping or even reducing vote buying will not be easy, therefore I'm in favor any laws which could have a quick strong effect in reducing vote buying.