Election Commission Declines to Prosecute Newin Over Senate Vote Fraud

The Election Commission's chairperson Narong Klun-warintr disclosed on September 14, 2569, that the commission voted by majority not to file charges against party executives in connection with a nationwide Senate election held on June 26, 2567. The first allegation involved charges that party executives, including Newin Chidchob, helped approximately 140 Senate candidates believed to be on the commission's watch list obtain high rankings, allegedly with assistance from 21 individuals.

The case relied on testimony from three key witnesses: coded witnesses 16/26, 21/26, and 22/26, and one named witness, Kusumawati Sirigomut. Witness 16/26, described as central to the investigation, claimed knowledge of four separate incidents involving planning by younger members of the Thai Pride Party's executive board, led by Paradon Parisanantakul, including alleged schemes to manipulate Senate elections and organize offline training programs.

The chairperson noted critical credibility issues with all three witnesses. Witness 16/26 was a former Thai Pride Party senator who was convicted by Khon Kaen Provincial Court of embezzling hundreds of millions of baht from a teachers' cooperative, served time in prison, and subsequently transferred to the Pheu Thai Party—circumstances creating internal party conflicts and contradictions that undermined the witness's reliability. The chairperson observed that despite claiming to have witnessed these events long ago, the witness never reported the alleged violations to the Election Commission until May 28, 2568, when requesting to provide formal testimony. Given these inconsistencies and the lack of credible corroborating evidence, the Election Commission determined that proceeding with charges against the executives was not justified.