Prit revealed evidence of corruption in the Nong Bua Lamphu Senator election, exposing a money trail from Senator Sorachart to seven other candidates, highlighting suspicious links between Senator Sorachart and Deputy Prime Minister Songsak, and demanding answers to three questions from them.
On 28 July 2026, Mr. Prit Watcharasindhu, a party-list MP from the Prachachon Party, posted on Facebook about the Senator rigging case, stating that the alleged corruption not only involves systematically creating candidate networks to exchange votes but also includes the practice of "hiring" individuals to register as candidates to cast votes for the "real" candidates controlled by the scheme through ordered lists.
Certainly, the most crucial evidence indicating such behavior is the "money trail." However, everyone knows that financial trails are not easily traceable because most hiring payments are usually made in cash, as corroborated by witnesses from Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phuket, and other provinces.
Nevertheless, today we have received financial evidence from at least two provinces: Financial trail 1: Surat Thani (linked to Subin Sakda, assistant to an MP). Recently, iLaw disclosed financial records of Mr. Subin Sakda, believed to be staff of MP Pichai Chomphupol (Surat Thani MP from Bhumjaithai Party), showing transfers from Mr. Subin to 10 Senator candidates totaling 32,000 baht during 15-16 June, just a day before the provincial-level Senator election.
And financial trail 2: Nong Bua Lamphu (linked to Senator Sorachart Wichai Suwanprom). The other money trail I revealed on stage last Sunday connects to Senator Sorachart Wichai Suwanprom, currently a Nong Bua Lamphu Senator from Group 13, who received the highest votes in the group during the national-level election.
If you recall, at the first opposition whip meeting two weeks ago, a witness from Nong Bua Lamphu (Sananchai) stated he was part of the process of setting up and hiring people to run as Senator candidates led by Mr. Sorachart. He also said that at times he heard Mr. Sorachart call Deputy Prime Minister Songsak Thongsri (then Deputy Minister of Interior) to report on the list of Senator candidates involved in the scheme.
The financial evidence disclosed aligns with the witness's allegations and includes the following details:
1. Transfers from "Sorachart Wichai Suwanprom" to "Pannipa Phasuk" (whom multiple witnesses identify as Senator Sorachart's secretary) totaling 553,600 baht (51,300 baht from Bank A and 502,300 baht from Bank B).
2. Transfers from "Pannipa Phasuk" (Senator Sorachart's secretary) to seven Nong Bua Lamphu Senator candidates totaling 105,000 baht during May-August 2024 as follows:
Most transfers (95,000 baht) occurred during May-June 2024 before the district and provincial-level Senator elections. Transfers in August 2024 (10,000 baht), after the Senator elections, correspond with witness Sananchai's account that, upon his appointment as a Senator assistant, he had to transfer part of his assistant salary back to Pannipa Phasuk for distribution to former Senator candidates involved in the scheme.
Although Senator Sorachart has recently given an interview on these issues, I believe his explanations remain unclear. He stated that Pannipa was his campaign assistant during his 2023 MP election but was not involved in his Senator election campaign, and he was unaware of any transfers from her to other Senator candidates. However, based on the information available,. at this time, I find his explanation suspicious because 1. If Pannipa was merely a former MP campaign assistant in 2023, why is there evidence of transfers amounting to hundreds of thousands of baht from Sorachart to Pannipa? Sorachart has neither denied nor explained this money trail, which likely reflects a close relationship between them; 2. Multiple witnesses agree they saw Pannipa acting as Sorachart's effective secretary during the Senator election; 3. Witness Sananchai said he was contacted by Pannipa after the Senator election regarding his appointment as Sorachart's assistant and coordinating the transfer of part of the assistant salaries back to Pannipa.
Mr. Prit also stated that Senator Sorachart admitted in an interview that he is "friends with Deputy Prime Minister Songsak Thongsri" but denied discussing the Senator election with him. Interestingly, Sorachart added, "I never discussed rigging with Songsak. I wasn’t in his network from the start... Maybe because I knew too much, they might have seen me as difficult to control." Based on the information available,. Currently, I see Sorachart's explanation contains suspicious points requiring further investigation because 1. Sorachart was elected as Senator in Group 13 with the highest votes (66 votes) in a group where vote distribution clusters tightly among the top six, with a significant gap to seventh place. It is hard to believe Sorachart was not part of the alleged national-level scheme; 2. Sorachart has not clarified what he means by Songsak's "network" that he claimed he was not part of "from the start." Is it possible that Sorachart was not involved from the outset at district or provincial levels but joined the scheme at the national election stage, explaining his top score in the group?Received the highest votesin the group in the national-level election.
However, to be fair to all parties, I must emphasize that to date, we have not seen any explanation from Deputy Prime Minister Songsak regarding the opposition's earlier questions: During the Senator election period (May-June 2024), did Songsak know Sorachart Wichai Suwanprom? If so, did they communicate? And if they did, did they discuss the Senator election?