[Abhisit's] Democrats off the hook

Prime Minister and Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, left, and Democrat chief adviser and former prime minister Chuan Leekpai smile after hearing the Constitution Court dismiss the case against the party. APICHIT JINAKUL

Donation case now looks shaky, say legal experts

30/11/2010
King-Oua Laohong and Manop Thip-Osod
Bangkok Post

Speculation is rife that the Democrat Party will also win the case against it of an alleged illegal donation after the Constitution Court spared it from dissolution by dismissing a charge of misuse of an election grant.

Six Constitution Court judges yesterday voted 4:2 to drop the case in which the party was accused by the Election Commission of misusing a 29 million baht grant from the EC during its campaigning for the April 2, 2005, general election.

The four judges who decided to throw out the case argued that the EC chairman, as the political party registrar, had failed - as required under the Political Parties Act - to submit the case to the court within 15 days of being notified that the grant might have been misused.

A source from the Constitution Court said the two judges who voted against dismissing the case were Chat Cholaworn, the court president, and Boonsong Kulbuppa.

The judges said the allegation that the party misused the grant came to the attention of the political parties registrar on Dec 17 last year, but the registrar only submitted the case to the court on April 26 this year.

This went beyond the 15-day time frame for submission of the case. This meant the move to dissolve the Democrats was unlawful and therefore there was no need to deliberate the rest of the legal issues related to the case, the judges said.

Chuan Leekpai, the head of the Democrats' defence team, made the closing statement on behalf of the party. Kittinant Thachpramuk, public prosecutor in charge of special litigation, made the closing statement on behalf of the EC.

Parinya Thewanarumitkul, deputy rector of Thammasat University, said the EC's failure to comply with the 15-day time frame was unexpected and was an important lesson for the EC.

Even though the case has now been dropped, members of the public are still in the dark over whether the Democrat Party had actually misused the grant, Mr Parinya said.

He said the court ruling yesterday might have implications on the other case in which the Democrat Party is accused of receiving an undisclosed donation of 258 million baht from cement giant TPI Polene.

Mr Parinya said the Democrat-led coalition government would face mounting pressure from its opponents, including the red shirt movement and the Puea Thai Party, now the court has spared it from dissolution.

He said the charter court has now freed itself from any predicament as the pressure has been shifted to the EC which failed to submit the case in time.

Komsan Photikong, a law lecturer at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, said the EC's procedures seeking the dissolution of the party were unlawful from the beginning.

The Constitution Court judges' decision to dismiss the case against the Democrat Party was right and legitimate, Mr Komsan said.

He agreed that anti-government protests would intensify as the government's opponents were disgruntled with the court's decision.

Bandit Siriphan, a member of the Democrat Party's defence team, said he would ask the Constitution Court to consider dismissing the case involving the alleged illegal donation from TPI Polene as the EC had also failed to submit the case in time as required by law. The 15-day time frame and the proceedings in the case involving the 29 million baht grant were based on Section 93 of the constitution.

But Thanapit Moolapruek, director-general of the Office of the Attorney-General's special litigation department, said the flaws in the case involving the 29 million baht grant would not be repeated in the 258 million baht donation allegation as the grounds to proceed in these two cases were different.

"These two cases differ in nature and in legal technicalities and legal proceedings. The Office of the Attorney-General has submitted the case involving the 258 million baht donation itself," Mr Thanapit said.

EC commissioner Somchai Juengprasert admitted the EC may have to review its role as an organisation following the court's decision.

He said EC members may raise the issue for discussion at today's meeting to find out why things turned out the way they had.

Senator for Si Sa Ket Jittipoj Wiriyaroj, who chairs a senate committee on constitutional organisations, said some legal experts and members of the public still questioned why the court ruling focused on only one legal technicality and then decided to drop the case.

He called on the judges to disclose their reasons for dismissing the charge of misuse of the fund money to dispel lingering public doubt.