Court will see'absentee voting' Parliament videos

He will seek the court’s ruling on both voting in the name of others during the parliamentary debate on charter amendments and the constitutionality of the amendment bill.
However, he will wait until the amendment bill is passed before petitioning the court.
“After voting in the final reading, I will submit all the clips to the Constitution Court. I have no intention of killing the constitutional amendment,” he said.

six videos
Besides the two videos the media saw on Tuesday, he had four more showing MPs from the Pheu Thai and Democrat parties voting with their neighbours’ ID cards. The acts were recorded during the first and second readings of the charter amendment bill.
“This is a matter of principle and parliamentarians have to follow the code of conduct. Company employees get fired when they punch the time clock for their co-workers. Doing that is a severe offence for company staff,” he said.
On the eighth day of the debate on charter changes yesterday, Parliament President Somsak Kiartsuranond, who is also Speaker of the House of Representatives, assigned Parliament secretary-general Pitoon Pumhirun to set up a fact-finding committee from the two houses. The results of its probe into Chuwit’s charges should be known within a week, he said.
The overall vote is not an issue, as each of the approved amendment clauses was supported by more than 300 parliamentarians, he said.
“I don’t think the whole amendment will be affected. This is a case of personal ethics.”
Earlier in yesterday’s debate, MPs from the government and opposition, as well as senators, called for an inquiry into allegations made by some parliamentarians.
Pheu Thai MP Jirayu Huangsap rose to defend his colleague who was photographed extending his hand to the panel in front of a seat behind his. Jirayu said his team found that the panel had no slot for an ID card.
He called on Bangkok Senator Rosana Tositrakul to apologise if it is found later that the photo she showed had caused a misunderstanding and damaged the reputation of Parliament.
Pheu Thai MP Wiwatchai Hotrawaisaya said he was the MP in Rosana’s photo, but he was just stretching and not voting for someone else.
Rosana called for a probe, saying she believed Chuwit’s videos were clear proof of what had happened.
Pheu Thai MP Worachai Hema admitted that some MPs and senators had asked their colleagues to press a button on their seats to confirm their presence when there was a call for voting, while they were returning to the meeting chamber.
“No parliamentarians can be glued to their seats for the whole day. They have to take breaks and take turns leaving all the time. So sometimes MPs and senators press the ‘present’ button for their colleagues,” he said.
Opposition Democrat MP Somboon Uthaiwiankul suggested that the matter be referred to the Constitution Court to rule whether it resulted in voiding the constitutional amendment.
Somsak said that in the future, parliamentarians should protest immediately when they see anyone voting on behalf of others so that the voting result could be corrected.

PM: we’ll punish offenders
Outside the chamber, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Parliament should check out the claims of improprieties and that her Pheu Thai Party had measures to punish offenders.
Pheu Thai MP Pracha Prasopdee said that during a vote on a bill in March, someone voted on behalf of Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva.
“My question is whether Abhisit was in Parliament at the time,” he said.
There were also some attempts to obstruct the government-sponsored constitutional amendment, he said.