Court Strips Senator's Father of Voting Rights for 10 Years
Thailand's Supreme Court stripped the father of a Pheu Thai senator of voting rights for 10 years after finding him guilty of orchestrating vote-buying schemes during the 2023 Senate election in Udon Thani.
The Supreme Court's Electoral Division has handed down a ruling stripping Satchaphong Phumiphakdi, former subdistrict mayor of Non Sao in Udon Thani and father of Udon Thani Senator Supheeraphatt Phumiphakdi of the Pheu Thai Party, of his voting rights for 10 years. The court announced the decision on September 21 following an Election Commission petition filed on July 21, 2024, naming two defendants: first, a Senate candidate Thanawutti Saeangorn, and second, Satchaphong Phumiphakdi. The complaint alleged irregularities in the June 26, 2023 Senate election, including duplicate votes in large numbers.
According to court documents, an unknown individual telephoned the Senate candidate to arrange a meeting at Pathumthani Place Hotel with four other candidates present. The candidate was then invited to a grilled chicken restaurant in Thonburi to discuss payment terms of 200,000 to 10 million baht depending on the number of voters they could deliver. At trial, the first defendant admitted to being persuaded to recruit Senate electors for planning meetings and to share revenue from participating voters. The second defendant allegedly served as an intermediary to convince electors to attend the hotel and restaurant meetings to coordinate voting plans in exchange for money or other benefits, in violation of the Senate Member Acquisition Act of 2018, Section 77(1), the Constitution Section 107, and related provisions governing electoral integrity.
When the case reached the Supreme Court, the first defendant filed no counter-argument. The second defendant denied being a Senate candidate, claimed no interest in the election outcome, and maintained that his meetings were purely social with no discussion of voting strategy or payment of any inducements. The Supreme Court's Electoral Division, after investigation and deliberation, ruled that the Election Commission had the right to petition for removal of the second defendant's voting rights. The court found sufficient evidence of electoral fraud under the Senate Member Acquisition Act of 2018, Section 62, which authorizes stripping voting rights when a candidate or accomplice engages in electoral misconduct.
