Deputy Prime Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong has dismissed an allegation made by an MP of the main opposition People's Party (PP) that the government offered him around 10 million baht in a bid to court him to vote for Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra in Wednesday's no-confidence vote.
Mr Prasert, also the digital economy and society minister, said he firmly believed no coalition party had done what was claimed by Krit Silapachai, a PP MP for Rayong, because there was no need for the coalition to find any extra votes as it already had well over 300 MPs, more than enough to win the no-confidence vote.
Mr Prasert responded to Mr Krit's post on his Facebook page on Wednesday, which included a screenshot of the MP's chat history on the Line application with someone he claimed had offered him 10 million baht in exchange for his vote.
The two-day censure debate ended with the voting session on Wednesday morning. Out of 488 members of parliament, 319 voted for the PM, while only 162 voted against her, with seven abstentions.
Apart from MPs from the government coalition parties, seven from opposition parties voted for the premier. They were Kanchana Changwa from the Palang Pracharath Party, Chaiyamparwaan Manpianjit from the Thai Progressive Party, and five MPs from the Thai Sang Thai Party, including Rampoon Tantiwanitchanon, Thakon Tanthasit, Supaporn Salabsri, Rang Thurapol and Adisuk Kaewmungkunasup.
As for the opposition MPs who voted for the PM, Mr Prasert said some may have been convinced by how Ms Paetongtarn defended herself and the government in the face of the allegations. He described Mr Krit's claim as groundless.
He also dismissed speculation that the opposition MPs who voted for the PM did so with the agenda of building bridges with the coalition in a bid to hopefully join its ranks.
Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin suggested the opposition should come up with more credible supporting claims before making wild allegations of vote-buying.
He also criticised opposition leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut for saying he had approached the PM after the vote to demand clearer answers on questions he believed she failed to properly address during the vote.
Mr Somsak questioned whether such behaviour was professional, saying that, in his experience of 40 years in parliament, he had never seen such a disrespectful act.
Mr Natthaphong approached the PM on the pretense of having a photo taken with her but then used this as a pretext to badger her on questions she had already answered during the debate, Mr Somsak said.
