Thai Constitutional Court Upholds Ruling to Sack 10 SenatorsThailand's Constitutional Court Thursday maintained the recent ruling of the Election Commission (EC) to sack ten senators including Senate Speaker Sanit Worapanya for election frauds, according to local TV reports.The 15-member court made the decision by 12 votes against one, with one absent and one abstained. The EC ruled earlier this month that the ten senators were suspected of having committed irregularities in the Senate election last March, and that was already a sufficient reason for it to expel them out of the parliament according to the reformed election rules. However, it allowed those senators to re-run in the Senate by- elections which are to be held in next month. Those senators, led by Sanit, had launched an appeal to the Constitutional Court, saying the EC's ruling is unfair and based on bias. After the court's final ruling on the issue, the rest of the 190 senators will have to elect a new speaker in the following weeks. Major-General Manoonkrit Rupekachorn has already emerged to be a top contender for the post. He had lost to Sanit in the first polling for the speaker's post after the Senate was inaugurated last August. |
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