Former prime minister portrayed as shaping state plan while supporting statewide candidates
PUBLISHED: 8 Jan 2025 at 19: 01
The Election Commission (EC ) appears reluctant to rule on whether Thaksin Shinawatra‘s campaign promises to voters in northern Thailand are in violation of election regulations.
” We need to first look into the details ]of his promises]. But, we didn’t answer this question right today”, EC president Ittiporn Boonpracong said on Wednesday.
By promising voters in exchange for their assistance in statewide elections, Mr. Ittiporn responded to questions about whether such a Thaksin, who is widely recognized as the genuine leader of the Pheu Thai Party, had broken the law.
His new promise, which is a 11 % decline over the current rate of 4.15 baht, led to a particular source of concern.
Within two or three days of Thaksin announcing anything, his child Paetongtarn, as prime minister, often declares it to be federal policy. Therefore on Tuesday she said the government may  , try to reduce power bills to 3.70 ringgit a product.
Mr. Ittiporn argued that because the ballot system has been closely monitoring campaign activity throughout the country. Boards tasked with investigating election fraud may review Tacsin’s statements as well as those delivered by other parties.
He said that there are typically two of these commissions: one focusing on violating election laws and the other on violating the natural laws governing political parties.
Mr. Ittiporn asked if any partnership party could use the government’s policies to win statewide elections in February, but it depended on the coalition’s ability to do so.
He said that any references to the federal government’s policies that are justified are permitted, but useless ones are not.
” The EC has a crew to do this work in every county,” said the EC. Thus far there have not been any major abnormalities. But the campaigning is expected to intensify”, he said.
When questioned about whether MPs and cabinet ministers could support candidates for regional elections, he responded that they could as long as they informed the EC that they would like to serve as” campaign helpers” for a particular member.