The People’s Party has denied allegations that it deducted salaries from assistants to its MPs to pay for party membership fees, saying the claims were politically motivated to discredit the opposition.
The allegations were made by Klatham Party MP Phai Lik, who said such practices could constitute a money-laundering offence.
People’s Party deputy leader Rangsiman Rome said that it was both illegal and against party regulations to divert salaries of MPs’ assistants to cover someone else’s membership fee.
‘If any such misdeed is committed by anyone in the party, we’re ready to take legal action,’ he said on Wednesday.
‘We are open to scrutiny from any independent agency, and we have nothing to worry about.’
Each member of the House of Representatives can hire up to three assistants, using an allowance to pay them. Salaries are negotiable but generally they are reported to be around the same as for entry-level office workers.
A yearly membership in the People’s Party costs 50 baht. A lifetime membership costs between 350 and 500 baht.
Mr Rangsiman also criticised Mr Phai for lacking a basic understanding of money laundering and proxy accounts, which involve illegal money, not legitimate salaries.
He said the allegations were baseless.
Mr Rangsiman also questioned how Klatham managed to recruit people to become the party with the most registered members, despite its modest seat total (26) in the House.
Klatham tops the list with 181,551 paid-up members, followed by the People’s Party (107,245) and Palang Pracharath (72,097), according to data from the Election Commission.
Mr Rangsiman said his party had a rigorous, four-step membership verification process that includes photo identification, one-time password (OTP) verification and random audits, adding that every complaint was thoroughly checked.
Mr Phai also claimed that a former People’s Party assistant had admitted to returning most of his salary after tax deductions and that he was instructed to transfer 2,000 baht as a membership fee for others.
The Kamphaeng Phet also alleged that a People’s Party MP had appointed a high school student as an aide, which could violate regulations requiring assistants to have at least 5 years of political experience.
He defended his party’s growing membership, saying its expansion was due to active recruitment and community work, especially in the provinces where it had MPs such as Kamphaeng Phet and Phayao, the latter being the home of Thamanat Prompow, the party’s de facto leader.