EC spared Bt62m payout as top court dismisses ex-Pheu Thai MP lawsuit
The Supreme Court has overturned lower court rulings that ordered the Election Commission (EC) to pay Bt62 million in compensation to a former Pheu Thai MP for Chiang Mai after it voided his 2019 election victory.
The former MP, Surapol Kietchaiyakorn, contested the election in Chiang Mai’s Constituency 8 and received 52,165 votes, beating the runner-up by a margin of more than 20,000.
The EC voided his victory and suspended his right to contest elections for one year after finding that he had breached election law by donating 2,000 baht to a senior monk on his birthday.
Surapol challenged the EC’s decision by taking the case to the Supreme Court’s Election Case Division, which cleared him of any wrongdoing, ruling that making donations on one’s birthday is a traditional practice.
Based on the Supreme Court’s ruling, the former Pheu Thai MP filed a civil action seeking 70 million baht in compensation from the EC for its wrongful act, which he claimed tarnished his reputation.
The Court of First Instance ordered the EC to pay him 70 million baht in compensation. The Appeals Court upheld the ruling but reduced the amount to Bt56 million in damages plus six million baht in legal costs.
The EC appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court, which reversed the lower courts’ rulings on the grounds that the EC had reason to suspect that the former MP might have broken the law and that there was no evidence it harboured ill intentions toward him.
The Supreme Court then dismissed the case, sparing the EC from having to pay compensation.