Amid the buzz and feverish preparations for the electoral showdown on the horizon, Sakon Nakhon’s very own beacon of the Pheu Thai Party, Pattana Sapso, found himself in the throes of controversy. Click here to see how it unfolded on Pattana’s Facebook, as the jovial politico with an infectious charm inadvertently cannonballed into choppy legal waters.
Hark! The Election Commission, those vigilant sentinels of democracy, unsheathed their gavels of justice and headed straight for our intrepid lawmaker following a tip-off. As it turned out, Mr. Pattana’s cyber musings were under the microscope for an alleged eleventh-hour voter wooing spree. No-no, says the mighty EC, as it unfurled its parchment detailing the sacred no-canvassing-time-zone edict etched in the 2018 Election Act.
It began with a morning as crisp as fresh linen, on election day—at the crack of dawn, 6.55 am, to be precise. That’s when Mr. Pattana, in a digital tango, shared a magnetic summons from the Pheu Thai’s digital hearth, beckoning his constituents to a grand powwow. The star attraction? None other than Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the voice of Pheu Thai’s siren song and scion of the formidable Thaksin—the patriarch etched in the annals of Thai politics.
That’s where the plot thickens and the legality of e-campaigning gets murky as a Monsoon puddle. Roll the tapes, for there was a video, nearly five minutes of pure celluloid sapience, touting the Pheu Thai prowess—a forbidden fruit after the clock’s declaration of the electronic silence period. Picture it: a social media stage, a proactive video, and the spellbound electorate—a recipe that had the EC’s eyebrows raising faster than the mercury in Thai summer.
Mr. Pattana’s defence was the epitome of bewilderment. An accident, he assured, an unintended digital slip of the finger—one that he couldn’t quite lay his memory upon. His timeline evidenced a digital ceasefire proclaimed at the witching hour on May 13, a declaration of e-campaign dormancy until the clock had chimed the electoral epilogue.
Alas, the EC, unmoved by tales of accidental reposts and cyber snafus, opined that Mr. Pattana’s ‘oops’ moment held about as much water as a sieve. The verdict? Gavel down—a swift rap affirming that the charismatic MP might very well have tangoed over the legal line.
With the ink dry on the parchment, it was decreed: Pattana Sapso, accused of electoral fox pas, shall stand before the scales of justice. A cautionary tale, dear readers, of the perils that lurk in the shadowy nooks of digital canvassing and the eagle-eyed watch of the Election Commission.
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