The Pheu Thai Party (PTP) on Thursday vowed to pursue legal action against Sonthiya Sawasdee, a member of the United Thai Nation (UTN) Party who it said filed a false petition with the Election Commission (EC) accusing Pheu Thai of cheating voters with its 10,000-baht digital handout campaign promise.
During the campaign season, the party promised to give out 10,000 baht in digital handouts to people over 16 years old to boost the economy, a move that has come under criticism from politicians.
Treechada Srithada, deputy Pheu Thai spokeswoman, on Thursday said the EC had already dismissed all petitions asking it to examine whether the policy was aimed at cheating voters.
These included petitions filed by Srisuwan Janya, secretary-general of the Association for the Protection of the Constitution, and Ruangkrai Leekitwattana, a former election candidate of the Palang Pracharath Party, she said.
She said the digital handout policy is now being discussed among Pheu Thai’s potential coalition partners.
She, therefore, accused Mr Sonthiya of deliberately using his petition to discredit Pheu Thai’s handout policy because he did not petition the EC over the campaign promises of other political parties.
The Palang Pracharath Party, which shares a history with the UTN, for instance, failed to raise the daily minimum wage to between 400 and 425 baht as promised in 2019, she said.
This clearly showed Mr Sonthiya deliberately defamed Pheu Thai to mislead the public, a violation under Section 101 of the 2017 organic law on political parties, she said.
“Pheu Thai isn’t going to put up with such an attempt to treat it badly,” she said. “No more apologies. He deserves consequences for what he has done.”
Sonthiya: PTP ‘cheated voters’