Thai Senate Speaker accused of abusing power

The Thai National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) on March 20 temporarily stopped Senate Speaker Nikom Vaiyaratpanich from working following an accusation of abusing power.

The Thai National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) on March 20 temporarily stopped Senate Speaker Nikom Vaiyaratpanich from working following an accusation of abusing power.

Senate Speaker Nikom Vaiyaratpanich (Source: chiangmai-mail.com)

According to NACC, Nikom was impeached for abusing his power while chairing a meeting on the amending of the constitution in September last year.

The committee also called on the Senate to subsequently impeach and remove him from his post. However, the upper house needs a consensus of a minimum of three-fifths of the senators to do this.

For his part, Nokom said he will defend himself from such misconduct charges during a special Senate session.

Last November, the Thai Constitutional Court ruled that the constitution amendment involving the making of future senators was "illegal" and "unconstitutional."

The controversial amendment had sought to have all future senators elected by constituents instead of having only half of them appointed as at present.
Nikom is one of hundreds of Thai politicians backing the amendment being investigated by NACC on accusations related to the draft.

Under the country’s law, 77 out of 150 seats in the upper house are elected by Thai people and the remaining are appointed.

Thai voters are scheduled to elect 77 senators on March 30.