Parliament, 'Chirat' insists he did not create a story about buying the 'Snake MPs', says the Prime Minister should have been able to give a better answer, confirms joining a new party, waits for a clear announcement about who will be the party leader tomorrow (9 Aug)Mr. Chirat Thongsuwan, MP for Chachoengsao and former member of the Move Forward Party, spoke about the case in which Mr. Settha Thavisin, the Prime Minister, asked for evidence of MP purchases to be disclosed, saying that this is a big issue that destroys the principles of confidence in the democratic system. The issue of cobras, whether they are bought or sold, is something that the Prime Minister cannot come and deny in this way. If he were an MP, he would know that there is no evidence to disclose. If he were to deny that he should go and get the evidence, he thinks that is not a good answer for the Prime Minister. This shows that the Prime Minister already knows who bought the MPs.Mr. Chirat said that he thought that if the Prime Ministe r did not know, he should have been able to answer better. This was an answer that sounded like what he heard from General Prayut Chan-o-cha, a former Prime Minister. If it was Mr. Pita Limjaroenrat, a former MP from the party-list, he would not have answered like this. As for what evidence there was to confirm that it was real, Mr. Chirat said that it was not illegal. Removing the evidence would not do anything. If they were to challenge that he was making up stories, he did not know what the point was. Another thing that he saw was that a party had been established, but he did not know that a party had been established.As for Mr. Pita's statement that in addition to the matter of 20-30 million baht, there was also the matter of exchanging positions, Mr. Chirat said that he had spoken through a local representative at home, whom he knew, who said that an assistant minister had contacted him to join a new party that was about to be established, and that they had negotiated the price to only 20-30 million ba ht. As for the matter of exchanging positions, he did not know about this yet.Mr. Chirat believes that there are still many people who have contacted to buy MPs from the Cobras, not just him. He cannot say for sure, but from what he has talked about, there are 2-3 people, both new and old MPs. As for the number of people, they have not discussed the price yet, but the highest is 30 million. He sees no reason to buy them to compete for ministerial positions or not, because the proportion of the opposition and the government is too far apart to buy them. However, he still insists that doing this destroys the democratic system of governance and makes the people lose confidence in the election system.Mr. Chirat confirmed that if a new party is launched, he will join it. There will be a press conference tomorrow (9 August).In addition, in the case of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) investigating 44 former MPs of the Move Forward Party who signed to amend Section 112, which is a serious violati on of ethics, which the Secretary-General said would lead to an indictment, are you concerned? Mr. Chirat confirmed that the process of proposing the law was the correct process and he still cannot think of any wrongdoing, similar to yesterday's verdict, which still cannot think of any wrongdoing that led to the dissolution of the party. He still insists on the intention to amend the law according to the power and duty of the legislative branch.As for the party executive committee, has it been finalized who will be on the board? Mr. Chirat said that there is a selection process. The party will announce tomorrow (August 9). When asked if there might be some who do not want to be on the board because they are afraid that they will be disqualified again, Mr. Chirat said that in principle, they were just talking about it casually, not seriously. In any case, they will insist on using MPs as party executives. As for the position switching because they are afraid that in the future there might be a problem of dis solving the party again, Mr. Chirat said that we must insist on the principle that the people on the party executive committee must be people with the power to manage the party. Therefore, we will not use nominees. Because if it is dissolved in the future, there will still be a 4th or 5th party. As for who will become the party leader, he could not answer that. We have to wait for the announcement tomorrow. As for who to support, it must be the resolution of the MPs. He does not want to say anything that he does not know.Source : Thai News Agency