Senate speaker quashes petition seeking to suspend 136 senators

An attempt by a group of independent senators to ask the Constitutional Court to suspend the 136 senators alleged to have been involved in senate election collusion last year, was dashed when Senate Speaker Mongkol Surasajja dismissed their petition on the grounds that it lacked sufficient support.

The petition was initiated by Senator Premsak Piayura and seconded by 20 other senators. It was addressed to the Senate president, through the Senate secretariat, demanding that the Constitutional Court suspend the 136 senators from performing their parliamentary duties after they came under investigation by the Election Commission and the Department of Special Investigation.

On Thursday, the Senate secretariat issued a press statement, saying that it had assigned its legal team to check the petition, to ensure that it meets the legal requirements, namely that it is supported by at least 20 senators and that the signatures of the 21 who signed the petition are authentic.

The secretariat said, however, that two signatories, Decha Nutalai and Thananpong Wongmulalee, claimed that their signatures on the petition were falsified and a third senator, Colonel Thanatsakorn Burakhom, withdrew from the petition claiming a misunderstanding.

As such, the secretariat ruled that the petition lacked the minimum 20 signatures required for it to be sent to the Constitutional Court and the petition was dropped by the Senate president.