Chuan worries about 'political businesses' buying their way into Parliament
Parliament President Chuan Leekpai said on Sunday that he was concerned about politicians buying votes during the upcoming general elections.
In a special interview with Parliament-beat reporters, Chuan stopped short of using the term “vote-buying” but said he expected election candidates to employ practices that he labelled “political business” or investments that can be recouped later.
Citing a recent opinion survey, Chuan, who also doubles as House speaker, said people want the next government to tackle corruption. However, he said, if the next government “bought” its way into power, then people’s wish would not be fulfilled.
“If politicians come into power through political businesses, it will lead to moves to reap unlawful gains either directly or indirectly,” he said.
“If election candidates spend money, where will they get the money from? When someone spends money, there must be someone who pays. Who is rich enough to spend such large amounts? So, we must join hands to get a good government by electing good candidates.”
The former PM said if voters want a government that has integrity, then they must elect honest candidates.
“Since the government is formed with a majority of House seats, people who realise the problem [of vote buying] should not have a hand in it,” he said.
“The upcoming election will use two ballots for constituency-based MPs and party-list MPs. So, if you don’t vote for cheating parties and cheating candidates, we will get qualified people in the government,” he added.
Chuan, who was also former Democrat Party leader, admitted that it will be difficult for election officials to prevent cheating, adding that though the Election Commission has claimed that the upcoming poll will be clean and fair, the reality is very different.
He added that it is very possible that election officials will fail to track down masterminds behind the vote-buying, adding that some officials were dishonest themselves.
“It’s usually difficult to prevent [vote-buying] because wrongdoers have ways of avoiding detection,” he said.
Chuan went on to say that Thailand’s parliamentary system and democracy have been growing for the past 90 years and getting stronger as people are gaining more confidence in the system.
“Yet political businessmen have sneaked in, so no matter how good the laws are if the enforcers are corrupt, the enforcement of law will be flawed,” Chuan said.
