Court rejects petition accusing Pheu Thai of trying to topple democracy
The Constitutional Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition against the ruling Pheu Thai Party and the prime minister related to the proposed digital wallet scheme and alleged dominance in policymaking by former prime minister Thaksin Shinwatra.
The petition filed by Kongdecha Chairat, former deputy managing director of the SME Development Bank, accused Pheu Thai of seeking to overthrow the country’s constitutional monarchy system of governance with the King as head of state.
In the petition, Kongdecha named Pheu Thai the first defendant, the Cabinet the second defendant, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin the third defendant and Thaksin the fourth defendant.
Kongdecha alleged that Pheu Thai had unlawfully obtained the power to rule by using the 10,000-baht per person digital wallet handout scheme as its main election campaign policy.
The petition alleged that the policy, which failed to clarify the source of funding as required by the election law, distorted the people’s voting intention, allowing Pheu Thai to win the power to rule.
Kongdecha also alleged that Pheu Thai had allowed Thaksin to influence the party’s policies in violation of the party law.
The petition also alleged that the Cabinet had used the digital wallet scheme as its main policy for the country’s administration in violation of the charter.
Kongdecha accused Srettha of ruling the country without giving people accurate and complete information.
The petition alleged that the behaviour of the four defendants should be deemed as an attempt to topple the democratic system with the King as head of the state in violation of Article 49 of the charter.
The court ruled that the petition and an additional statement as well as supporting documents from Kongdecha failed to establish how the four defendants had acted to topple the democratic system.
The court decided that the allegations were just opinions of Kongdecha and dismissed the petition.
