Man dies in bomb blast outside banned politician's house

POLITICS / KORAT BY-ELECTION

Man dies in bomb blast outside banned politician's house

SUPAWADEE INTHAWONG

Nakhon Ratchasima _ A man was killed when a bomb exploded in front of a house rented by banned politician Suporn Atthawong, a former Thai Rak Thai MP, in Soeng Saeng district last night.

The house is next door to the district police station. The bomb exploded about 7pm. The dead man, whose body was severely mutilated, had not been identified last night.

Pol Lt-Col Pirawat Methacharatpong of Soeng Saeng police station said the house was rented by Mr Suporn.

He refused to give details of the type of bomb or to speculate on the motive for the attack.

It was not clear if Mr Suporn was in the house at the time of the explosion. He was not available for comment.

On July 2, Mr Suporn was shot and wounded by men in a pick-up while driving hime from a party in Khon Buri district. He linked the attack to a conflict with a local politician.

The politician he referred to ran in the Dec 23 poll under the Puea Pandin banner.

He was said to have won the election, but has yet to be endorsed by the Election Commission.

Three candidates of the People Power party (PPP) won all the seats in Nakhon Ratchasima's constituency 3 in the election re-run yesterday.

Election commissioner Praphan Naikowit said the by-election went smoothly. There were no boycotts of the poll, and no poll fraud was reported.

The by-election was called after three winning PPP candidates _ Prasert Chantraruangthong, Linda Cherdchai and Boonlert Krutkhuntod _ were yellow-carded after they were caught with cash and a list of eligible voters.

The unofficial results of yesterday's election re-run saw Mr Boonlert coming first with 96,627 votes, followed by Mr Prasert, 88,094 votes and Ms Linda, 84,371 votes. Wisit Pitthayaporn of the Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana party came fourth with 65,539 votes.

The Election Commission yesterday issued a yellow card to Surawit Konsomboon, a winning PPP candidate in Chaiyaphum's constituency 2.

Also yellow-carded were Meechai Jitpipat and Polpi Suwanchawee, both winning candidates for Puea Pandin, in Nakhon Ratchasima's constituency 6.