Three former MPs of the Bhumjaithai party have been stripped of their right to contest elections for life and have had their voting rights suspended for ten years by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders.
In a ruling read on Wednesday, the court also banned them from holding any political office after they were found guilty of allowing their parliamentary membership cards to be used by their fellow MPs to vote in parliament.
On May 18th last year, the same court sentenced Chalong Toedweerapong, former MP of Constituency 1 of Phatthalung province, Poomsit Kongmee, former MP of Constituency 2 of Phatthalung province and Natee Ratchakitprakarn, a party-list MP, to nine month in prison for grossly unethical conduct.
According to the court, the three allowed their parliamentary membership cards to be used by fellow MPs in the vote on the budget bill for the 2020 fiscal year on January 10th and 11th,2020.
They claimed that they forgot the cards in parliament, because they were in a rush to attend Children’s Day celebrations and a seminar, and that someone must have used them to vote on their behalf without their consent, but the court dismissed their claim.
