National Legislative Assembly president Pornpetch Wichitcholchai is to set up a fact-finding committee to probe into an allegedly doctored audio clip of a person claiming Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was not pleased with the selection committee’s proposed list of new board members of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).
The NLA on Friday (April 20) rejected the proposed list on ground that several of the 14 candidates did not meet the legally-required qualifications.
An informed parliamentary source said that the fact-finding committee is likely to be set up today (April 23). The investigation would take about one month and several parties concerned would be invited to testify.
The man in the audio clip, which was believed to be recorded during a meeting of the NLA members, said he was told that Gen Prayut “was not happy” with the list of 14 candidates and would like to use his power to scrap it all.
Mr Somchai Swangkarn, secretary of the NLA whips, insisted that it was not possible that the audio clip was leaked from the whips’ meeting or from the meeting of the NLA panel tasked with checking the qualifications of the candidates which was headed by Gen Oud Buangbon.
Mr Somchai said he was confident that the audio clip featuring the prime minister’s voice was doctored.
However, an informed NBTC source maintained that the clip in question was not doctored because the prime minister had been told before that some of the proposed candidates were not qualified and a board member of the NBTC, Col Natee Sukonrat, had allegedly proposed that the list of all the proposed candidates should be shot down.
Two options have been suggested for the selection committee. One is to screen from the 74 former candidates from the first selection and the other is to start the selection process all over again which may take up to one year in order to get a new board.
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