Phumtham clarifies DSI board did not completely reject senatorial election case

Deputy PM Phumtham clarified that the DSI Board did not fully reject the senatorial election case but will investigate alleged money laundering linked to certain winners. The probe focuses on 300 million baht in transactions suspected of influencing votes.

In what is seen as a face-saving gesture, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai explained on Thursday afternoon that the Board of Special Case did not outright reject the case of alleged election collusion by certain senatorial poll winners. Instead, it voted to investigate money laundering related to them.

Phumtham and Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong held a press conference after the board’s meeting, where they considered a request from a group of unsuccessful senatorial election candidates for the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to investigate alleged election collusion by some winners as a special case.

Before Phumtham’s press conference, most media outlets reported that the board had effectively rejected the request, as it failed to secure enough votes to classify the case as a special case.

Reports stated that the 22-member board voted 11 to 4 in favour of accepting the case, with three members abstaining and three others absent. Normally, at least 15 votes are required for a case to be accepted as a special case.

However, after the meeting, Phumtham clarified that the board had voted to accept the case as a special case on the grounds that the alleged wrongdoers had violated the Anti-Money Laundering Act by using money to influence others’ decisions.

Phumtham stressed that the Board of Special Case recognised it had no authority to conduct an election probe or determine whether collusion had occurred, as that responsibility belongs to the Election Commission (EC).

He assured that the board would not interfere with the EC’s powers but would instead investigate whether individuals involved in the senatorial election had violated anti-money laundering laws.

During the press conference, Tawee explained that the board invoked the first paragraph of Article 21 of the Special Case Act, which allows a special case to be accepted with a simple majority vote of board members present.

He further stated that the board exercised a similar power to that granted to the DSI director-general under Article 21, which allows the director-general to accept special cases independently.

According to Tawee, a two-thirds majority vote of the entire board, as specified in Article 21’s second paragraph, would only be required in cases of dispute when the first paragraph was not invoked.
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awee added that the DSI would examine financial transactions totalling approximately 300 million baht, which are believed to have been spent by certain election winners during the campaign.

Chartpong Jiraphan, a member of the Board of Special Case, confirmed that the case of alleged money laundering by certain senatorial election winners was accepted under Article 21’s first paragraph. As a result, a simple majority vote was sufficient.

(2025/03/06-00:00)