The Democrat Party held a mini-rally titled “Live Talk: 5 Bangkok Issues.” Pongsakorn emphasized problems of graft involving Bangkok district directors, exposing practices of locking appointments, evading procedures, and disappearing acts, while Kardi revealed budget splitting to avoid audits affecting 40,000 projects worth over 13 billion baht.
At 18:30 on 19 June 2026 at Park Silom in Sala Daeng, Bang Rak district, Bangkok, the Democrat Party held a mini-rally to campaign for Anucha Buchachaisri, candidate number 5 for Bangkok governor from the Democrat Party. The event titled “Opening 5 Bangkok Issues with 5 Key Figures of the Blue Party including James and Anucha” was attended by party executives such as Abhisit Vejjajiva, party leader; Korn Chatikavanij; Sakolthee Phattinukul; Kardi Liaopiroj; Radklao Suwankiri, deputy party leader; Pongsakorn Kwanmuang, party spokesperson; party councilor candidates; party members; and many supporters, despite evening rain.
Exposing locking, evading, and disappearing practices
The event was conducted in a Q&A format with five key guests questioning Anucha about solving various Bangkok problems. Pongsakorn stated that some Bangkok civil servants reported a trend of locking, evading, and disappearing in civil servant transfers, especially district directors. Some lacked qualifications but were locked in; others were appointed assistant district directors before completing their service period. Complaints were filed with Bangkok’s Integrity Protection Committee but went silent. This has sparked rumors questioning how Anucha, as governor, will resolve this. It was noted that during the handover from Governor Aswin Kwanmuang, Bangkok had a reserve budget of 76 billion baht, but now only a few billion remain.
Anucha responded that he understands some have special tickets granting privileges despite lacking qualifications. If given the chance to govern, he will prioritize a merit-based system focusing on knowledge and capability, eliminating special tickets that require bribes collected from the public as unofficial fees. Under the Democrat Party, this system will not exist. Regarding budget use, he said related parties must clarify matters to society.
Revealing budget splitting to avoid audits
Meanwhile, Kardi spoke about the 'Sod Rat' platform, which uses AI to analyze Bangkok’s procurement data over the past year. It found that Bangkok used direct appointments without competitive bidding for 92% of projects—40,054 projects totaling over 13.37 billion baht. Among these, 38,945 projects were split into budgets below 500,000 baht to avoid bidding procedures, creating a dark budget with no competition. One recently signed contract was 4 billion baht for Klang Hospital, where only two companies competed with prices differing by just 1 million baht, suggesting collusion. Anucha said they are not attacking anyone but rely on data from the 'Sod Rat' app, launched less than a month ago, presenting facts. In his era, governance will be transparent following the party’s policy of honest politics promoted by Abhisit.