Election Commission disqualifies Parliament speaker

BANGKOK: Thailand's Election Commission voted yesterday to disqualify the speaker of Parliament's lower house for electoral fraud, issuing a ruling that could dissolve the People's Power Party that leads the coalition government.

The Election Commission ruled 3-2 that house speaker Yongyuth Tiyapairat, an executive leader of PPP, was guilty of vote-buying in his northern Chiang Rai province ahead of December elections.

The commission is to forward its findings to the Supreme Court within 15 days. If the court accepts the case, Yongyuth will have to stop working in parliament pending the court's decision.