Speaker demands to know how renegade MP could attend House vote

PHOTO: House Speaker Chuan Leekpai. “Please explain”.

Parliamentary House Speaker Chuan Leekpai is demanding an investigation into why parliamentary security didn’t arrest fugitive MP Waipote Arpornrat when he attended a House meeting on Wednesday.

Opposition MPs have voiced suspicion over the presence of Waipote, a member of the Palang Pracharat party, in the House chamber for a crucial vote over the creation of a panel to investigate orders issued under Section 44 of the 2017 interim constitution. Palang Pracharat is the most prominent party of the government’s ruling coalition, and Waipote is wanted under an arrest warrant from the Supreme Court.

Palang Pracharat needs all members of the coalition to attend any vote as their house majority is now wafer-thin.

Chuan says he didn’t chair the House session due to a doctor’s appointment, and that he was unaware of Waipote’s presence in the chamber.

Wednesday’s House session was chaired by Suchart Tancharoen, the first Deputy House Speaker, who says he didn’t order Waipote’s arrest because the House of Representatives hadn’t yet received a warrant from the Pattaya provincial court.

Suchart claimed that since his parliamentary status was still ‘intact’, Waipote could attend House meetings.

SOURCE: Thai PBS World