Barkar Nash (Page 937)

Almost 5 million Thais are travelling during the long weekend and will spend 16.6 billion baht at various holiday locations in the country, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The extended holiday from Friday to Wednesday, made possible by a cabinet announcement last week designating today as a special holiday, is spurring great tourism spending, the TAT added.

The TAT predicts there will be 4.96 million trips with local tourists spending 16.6 billion baht during the holiday.

TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn said the average hotel occupancy rate is expected to be 63% during the period.

During the first two days of the long holiday, tourists made trips to destinations within a 200–300 kilometre radius of where they lived, he said.

“Negative factors continue to be inflation and fuel prices that remain high though it is tending to decline,” he said. “They are major obstacles to Thais spending.”

On Monday, the government suddenly announced a special holiday for today in a bid to stimulate domestic tourism. If the extended holiday period had been announced long before, people could have planned overseas trips to places like Japan as the yen is fairly weak, the TAT governor said.

In Chiang Mai, landmark tourist attractions, including the Tha Pae area in downtown Muang district, were packed with both Thai and foreign visitors.

Paisal Sukcharoen, president of the Thai Hotels Association, Northern Chapter, said the hotel occupancy rate during the long weekend has hit 80%. Half of the guests are foreigners, he said.

Tourism revenue in Chiang Mai earned from Thai visitors is estimated to be 120 million baht.

In Phuket, holiday tourism revenue is predicted to reach 2 billion baht as the island province is teeming with overseas visitors, mostly from Russia, Malaysia, Singapore, India and Vietnam.

Lertchai Wangtrakuldee, director of TAT’s Phuket office, said the hotel occupancy rate during the holiday has surpassed 65%. More than 234,000 visitors, both foreign and Thai, have booked accommodation on the island during the holiday, he said.

Police raided four locations in Bangkok and Loei on Saturday, arresting three suspects for their alleged involvement in online gambling websites.

Pol Gen Roy Ingkapairote, deputy national police chief, said yesterday the ️Police Cyber Taskforce (PCT) had arrested the suspects over their links to a number of gambling websites, including betfixroyal.com.

The suspects were identified by authorities only as Suchanan, Oranee and Natthawat.

Officers confiscated 100 bank passbooks, 55 ATM cards, 30 mobile phones, 920,000 baht in cash, electronic devices such as laptops and iPads and a white Toyota car worth one million baht, he said.

Pol Gen Roy said their gambling websites have over 50,000 users with more than one hundred million baht worth of cash flow.

All suspects have been charged with promoting gambling and colluding in money laundering.

Pol Gen Roy also said the suspects were also found to have been involved in online gambling scams in the North, prompting officers to press more charges in accordance with the Royal Decree on Cyber Crime Prevention and Suppression.

Police will notify the Anti-Money Laundering Office to impound the suspects’ assets for further investigation as they widen their probe.

Pol Gen Roy said the arrest followed the capture of Pongsiri Thanratchawongsuek, alias “Boss Than”, the chairman of the Lamphun Warriors Football Club, who is accused of running an illegal online gambling website TS911.com. He was arrested in Phayao on June 20.

An investigation showed his website was designed in a way that allows users to gambling online by scanning a QR code on the Line mobile app.

Pol Gen Roy said Mr Pongsiri’s site had 40,704 users and 7,017 followers on Line. Police also seized assets including his house, land and luxury cars worth about one billion baht.

The Election Commission (EC) plans to take criminal and civil action against a Move Forward Party MP for running in the May 14 election despite having been previously convicted and jailed for theft, according to its chairman.

EC chairman Ittiporn Boonpracong said yesterday the candidacy of Rayong MP Nakhonchai Khunnarong should have been barred by Section 98 of the constitution which sets criteria for those running for parliament. These include a ban on those who have a criminal conviction (with some exceptions).

If a candidate runs in a general election despite knowing he or she is ineligible, that can also be considered as committing an offence in violation of Section 151 of the MP election law.

He or she can be held responsible for any costs incurred during that time in accordance with Section 420 of the Civil and Commercial Code, Mr Ittiporn said.

He said the EC was aware of the MP’s announcement that he would resign by the end of this week. “There is the issue of a criminal offence under Section 151 of the organic law on MP elections and there could also be a civil lawsuit to demand compensation for the cost of a by-election,” Mr Ittiporn said.

Mr Nakhonchai, aka Ice Rayong, announced his resignation on Thursday last week after admitting he had been convicted in a theft case and served 18 months in jail 24 years ago.

The case dates back to October 1999 when he was 20 years old, he said. He was partying with a group of friends when he found a woman’s wristwatch on a table.

He took it to “examine” when the police showed up. He and his friend were arrested. His friend confessed to stealing the wristwatch but he denied it. At the police station, he said he unknowingly signed a confession.

He was sentenced to three years in jail, but the sentence was cut in half due to his confession.

Most people think the MFP failed in its bid to form a government with leader Pita Limjaroenrat as prime minister because of its insistence not to compromise on some of its policies, according to an opinion survey by Nida Poll.

The poll was conducted from July 24–26 via telephone interviews with 1,310 people aged 18 and over of various levels of education, occupations and incomes throughout the country.

Asked which mistakes led to the MFP’s failure, 42.98% said the MFP had refused to drop some of its policies in exchange for more support, while 27.56% said the MFP was defeated by political games in parliament. A total of 30.46% of respondents did not think the MFP made a mistake.

Asked whether protests would erupt if the MFP joined the opposition, 35.19% said there would be major but controllable rallies, 24.81% said there would be small rallies and 23.16% said there would be major rallies that could get out of control.

The Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), which leads the caretaker government, would accept the chance to join the next coalition government if it is invited, said its secretary-general.

“PPRP’s chance will come when a prime minister is installed and they invite us to join the government,” Thamanat Prompow said on Sunday. He was voted PPRP secretary-general just after its leader Prawit Wongsuwon resigned.

Representatives of PPRP met executives of the Pheu Thai Party last week and PPRP has not been contacted since, Capt Thamanat said.

Pheu Thai is taking the lead in forming the next government after Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the Move Forward Party (MFP), failed to win a parliamentary vote for the prime minister’s post on July 13.

MFP and Pheu Thai are the two key parties in their eight-party coalition alliance which has 312 of 500 House representatives. Their House votes could not make a majority vote when both elected House representatives and 249 military-appointed senators voted for prime minister on July 13.

Asked if any parties outside the eight-party alliance would vote for a prime ministerial candidate from Pheu Thai, Capt Thamanat did not give an answer but said his party would prefer to wait for all factors to become clear first.

He expected clear directions on Tuesday and said a prime minister should be elected on either Friday or Aug 15. He did not elaborate.

Capt Thamanat denied that his return as PPRP’s secretary-general was meant to prepare the party to join the next coalition government. The party was restructured for its own growth, he said.

Asked about the possibility of PPRP working together with Pheu Thai, he said that PPRP MPs were formerly affiliated with Pheu Thai, so PPRP will not have any problem if it joins the next coalition government.

Capt Thamanat was among 21 former PPRP MPs who were expelled from the party. He returned to the party early this year. PPRP won 40 House seats in the May 14 election, coming fourth after MFP, Pheu Thai and the Bhumjaithai Party.

NARATHIWAT: Security officials have been ordered to examine 52 other warehouses in this southern border town after a huge fireworks explosion at a godown in Sungai Kolok district on Saturday, leaving 12 people killed, 121 injured and nearly 300 houses damaged, about 50 of them totally destroyed.

Lt Gen Santi spoke after visiting a relief centre set up on the sports field of the Muno tambon administration organisation in Sungai Kolok, where he was briefed on the explosion.

He said some 52 other warehouses in the provinces must be examined to see whether they were built with valid permission and had been properly used to prevent a recurrence of the Saturday incident.  

Explosive ordnance disposal teams should thoroughly scan the site of the explosion to determine the quantity of fireworks stored illegally in the warehouse. It was initially believed at least 5 tonnes of fireworks had been kept there, judging from the two deep holes left at the site by the powerful blast, Lt Gen Santi said.

Pol Maj Gen Anurut Im-ab, the Narathiwat police chief, said the owner of the godown would be charged with recklessness causing deaths and injuries under the Criminal Code and the laws on arms, ammunition and explosives.

Pending further investigation, the warehouse owner, who has been summoned to report to police, may also be charged for violating the Factory Act of 1992 and the Labour Protection Act of 1998.

The Bhumjaithai Party will not join a coalition government if it includes the Move Forward Party (MFP), Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul confirmed on Sunday.

The leader of the party which came third in the May 14 election with 71 House seats said that Bhumjaithai stood firm with its same old standpoint that it would not join a coalition government if the formation included MFP.

MFP won the general election with 151 House seats. It tried to form the next government with seven other political parties. The Pheu Thai Party which came second in the polls with 141 House seats was the other big ally in the coalition group.

“If the eight-party alliance remains as declared in the MoU, the ninth ally will never be Bhumjaithai. Please rest assured,” said Mr Anutin who is also caretaker deputy prime minister and public health minister.

The eight-party alliance had 312 House votes.

Mr Anutin said he never heard of any initiative to form a coalition government with nine political parties to obtain a majority vote for prime minister from 500 MPs in the elected House and the Senate with 249 senators.

Since he discussed coalition government formation with Pheu Thai on July 22, he has not been contacted to have a talk on this issue again, Mr Anutin said.

Mr Anutin refused to comment on the possibility of the MFP being excluded from the next coalition government.

Meanwhile, MFP list MP Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn wrote on Facebook that there were many rumours that the MFP would be excluded from the coalition alliance and made an opposition party, and he considered them as efforts to divide the eight-party alliance.

Without the MFP, a coalition government would not be able to answer questions from the people, he wrote.

Prasert Chanthararuangthong, secretary-general of the Pheu Thai Party, said the eight hopeful coaltion parties will meet officially before the parliament again votes for prime minister, possibly on Aug 4 (Froday).

On July 13 MFP leader and prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat failed to win a majority vote from the parliament to become prime minister. On July 19 the parliament rejected his renomination.