PUBLISHED : 1 Jul 2024 at 19:30. NEWSPAPER SECTION:News. WRITER:Aekarach Sattaburuth. A former senatorial candidate on Monday urged the Supreme Administrative Court to suspend the announcement of the Senate election result pending its ruling on the poll agency's handling of the Senate race. In a petition, Jaturan Boonbenjarat, also secretarygeneral of the Clean Politics group, accused the Election Commission EC of duty negligence in examining the qualifications of senatorial candidates, which could affect the integrity of the election process. Mr Jaturan asked the court to hold an urgent hearing to consider suspending the EC's announcement of the Senate election result until the qualifications of the 200 senatorselect and the 100 others on the reserve list were thoroughly checked. The EC is expected to announce the election result today or tomorrow. He alleged that the Senate election process was rigged by political and interest groups as several candidatesgave false informationabout their professional backgrounds. Mr Jaturan insisted that he did not have any ill intention to have the Senate election nullified, saying all he wanted was for the EC to examine the winners' qualifications fully. "Several people have spoken out about irregularities," he said. "I'm afraid that some of these senatorselect are not qualified to work and could be influenced by some interest groups. So I petitioned the court to hold an urgent hearing before the result is announced.". He said he disagreed with and did not trust the "endorse first, disqualify later" approach advocated by the EC. Also, former senatorial candidates led by Pol Lt Gen Khamrop Panyakaew and Chakkrapong Khongpanya petitioned the EC to delay announcing the election result until a detailed investigation was conducted. Panich Charoenphao, an excandidate who stood in Autthaya's Bang Pain district, also asked the EC to disqualify one of the winners in Professional Group 7 labour for allegedly making false claims about his qualifications. Altogether, the 200 senatorselect were drawn from 20 professional groups, ten from each group. He said he had documents to support his allegations against the person and handed them to the EC for use in an investigation. He also threatened to sue the EC for malfeasance if it refused to launch a probe into this case. By subscribing, you accept theterms and conditionsin ourprivacy policy.
Former senatorial candidate urges Supreme Administrative Court to suspend Senate election result announcement due to concerns about Election Commission's handling of candidate qualifications. Allegations of duty negligence and rigging in the election process raised against political and interest groups. Request for thorough examination of winners' qualifications before result announcement. Calls for detailed investigation and potential disqualification of candidates with false claims.