Election watchdog clears 130 MP candidates accused of holding media shares
The Election Commission (EC) has cleared 130 MP candidates suspected of breaking election laws by holding shares in media companies, said EC secretary-general Sawang Boonmee on Monday.
The list of 130 names had been submitted by Charnchai Issarasenarak, a former Democrat MP for Nakhon Nayok province who was earlier disqualified by the EC for holding shares in two media companies.
The EC’s decision barred Charnchai from competing in the general election on May 14, prompting him to submit the list of 130 candidates he claimed were holding shares in companies that were no different from his, while questioning the transparency of the election agency’s ruling.
On Monday, Sawang said he had checked the shareholding status of all 130 candidates with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).
He said the SET notified the commission that no candidates were found to hold shares prohibited by election laws.
Sawang added that since the 130 candidates did not break any laws, their MP candidacy status would remain the same and the commission was not legally required to make a public announcement of its finding.
However, the EC had decided to announce the investigation results to prevent public misunderstanding, he said, as the complainant had declared publicly that the EC was considering disqualifying the 130 candidates.
