“Rachen” submitted to the EC to clarify whether the People’s Party can use a central account to receive donations or not, fearing that foreigners – aged 16 – will be involved in donations. Requesting the EC to use its authority to urgently request documents for investigation.
Mr. Rachen Trakulwiang, leader of the Alternative New Party, submitted a letter to the chairman of the EC to investigate the suspicions because the Prachachon Party came out to announce that there was a donation through a middleman account. Generally, political parties have 3 accounts: a political party account, a donation account, and a subsidy account. Mr. Rachen said that normally, if people want to donate money to a political party, they can donate directly to the political party’s account opened with a commercial bank. After opening an account with a commercial bank, within 7 days, the political party must submit the account to the EC as evidence, which is a general practice for political parties.
But recently, the executive comm
ittee of the People’s Party came out to announce that donations from the People’s Party must go through a central company or a central account first, and then the money will be donated to the party’s account. Therefore, I have an observation and question as to why the donation must go through a central account first, have a central company, and then transfer the money to the People’s Party’s account. Therefore, how can the central account be checked for money transfers? And can it be checked? Therefore, I would like the EC to take action. In addition, the account check can be done to check in depth whether there are any persons prohibited from donating to political parties, according to the Organic Act on Political Parties, Section 24, which states that foreigners who are not Thai nationals are prohibited from donating to political parties, for the sake of transparency in the operations of political parties.
Mr. Rachen said that the People’s Party had sent a letter to inquire with the EC and the EC had given
permission. Therefore, he raised this issue to ask the EC whether this kind of account could be made or not and how did the EC give permission? And how would the EC check the commercial bank that opened the account? If there are prohibited persons from donating money to political parties, but the account has been screened beforehand, he would like the EC to clarify for the public by checking whether there are prohibited persons who have donated to political parties or not. If there are donations, it is considered illegal. Therefore, the EC must urgently take action to clarify.
‘As he stated, he has already requested permission from the EC, but in general practice, I believe that no political party has asked because normally, it is transferred directly to the political party. Every account that is opened, whether it is a support account, a donation account, or a member account, they must clearly state what the account is for. Every month, it must be updated, and every year, a balance sheet must be made and su
bmitted to the EC for inspection every month. As for having a central account like this, I just found out that there is a central account for receiving donations before the executive committee of the Prachachon Party made the announcement. Therefore, I would like to make an observation so that the EC can proceed correctly and honestly because I am worried that there may be people who do not have the qualifications to donate to political parties. Before this, there was a person who was only 16 years old who was a member of the Move Forward Party, even though the law states that they must be at least 18 years old. Therefore, these issues may have slipped in, whether intentionally or not. Therefore, it is necessary to urgently submit it for the EC to inspect,’ said Mr. Rachen.
Mr. Rachen added that he wanted the EC to clarify whether political parties had the authority to do so as claimed. If they could, the next issue would be whether they could examine the accounts because there is now a requirement that the
accounts must be submitted for the EC to examine. Does the EC have the legal authority to call for external parties to examine the accounts? And can the central account examine whether there are people who are not qualified to support and donate to political parties? He viewed both issues as important, especially the issue of whether there are prohibited persons who donate. Therefore, the examination must be expedited.
When asked whether a 16-year-old can donate money to a political party, Mr. Rachen said that they will have to investigate and look at the law to see if a 16-year-old can donate money, and in what form. The law clearly states that everything must be transparent and verifiable. Therefore, he asked the EC to investigate in detail. The EC has a law that will punish by ordering a fine, with measures ranging from light to heavy. The fine starts at 50,000 baht or 1,000 baht per day until the matter is resolved. As for whether or not to dissolve the party, it depends on the EC’s law. The EC must take
action immediately and must answer questions to society within 3 to 7 days, because it is not difficult. He asked the EC to use its power to request documents and investigate whether there are any prohibited persons. If there are any prohibited persons, action must be taken immediately. 314.
Source: Thai News Agency