UTN ‘did not offer Democrats cash’

Trairong said members lost faith in party management

Trairong Suwannakhiri, the deputy leader of the United Thai Nation Party (UTN), said the party did not offer Democrat MPs a hefty sum of money to defect to the UTN ahead of the election.

His clarification came following a remark by Democrat leader Jurin Laksanawisit recently, in which he claimed a number of Democrat members had been offered large sums of money to leave the party’s ranks by another political outfit.

Reciting a metaphor cited previously by Chuan Leekpai, a former Democrat leader, Mr Jurin said the rival party was “fishing in a friend’s fishpond”. It has come to refer to parties poaching from each other’s ranks.

Though he stopped short of naming the party, many observers believed he was referring to the newly-established UTN.

Mr…