Move Forward to hold another vote on Monday for expelling Bangkok MP
The Move Forward Party’s executive board resolved on Sunday to reinitiate a process for expelling its “disgraced” Bangkok MP on Monday, the party announced.
The party announced after a board meeting at 1pm that in the opinion of the board, Chaiyamparwaan Manpianjit had failed to comply with the party’s resolution issued last week related to alleged sexual harassment allegations against him.
The party announced that it would hold a meeting of party executives and MPs to conduct another vote for expelling him in line with the constitutional requirements.
The charter requires at least three-fourth votes of MPs and party executives to expel an MP from the party.
Chaiyamparwaan and Prachinburi MP Wuttiphong Thonglour faced a probe by the party’s disciplinary and ethics committee into accusations of alleged sexual misconduct. The committee concluded there were grounds to believe the allegations against them.
However, Chaiyamparwaan was spared as fewer than three-fourths of MPs and executives present during the meeting voted for his expulsion during a vote on Wednesday (November 1). The meeting was attended by 128 executives and MPs and only 106 of them voted against Chaiyamparwaan, fewer than the required 116 votes under the constitution for expulsion. Wuttiphong was expelled with 120 votes.
Move Forward announced on Sunday that although Chaiyamparwaan was spared, he had been ordered by the party’s resolution to admit his guilt and issue public apologies to his three alleged victims, as well as provide remedies to the victims. The party has set a deadline for Chaiyamparwaan to complete these measures by Saturday (November 4).
But the board found that when Chaiyamparwaan held a press conference on Friday (November 3), he did not show any remorse and refused to accept that he had sexually harassed the three alleged victims and failed to sincerely apologise to them.
Worse still, the party said, Chaiyamparwaan had caused more damage to the alleged victims by exposing their information to the public.
“As a result, the party’s executive board resolved to ask the disciplinary and ethics committee to initiate a process to slap the highest disciplinary penalty with expulsion against Chaiyamparwaan,” the statement from the party added.
