PM denies her government tried to buy votes in no-confidence debate

Prime Minister says paying for MP votes in no-confidence debate when she had enough support would have been a waste of money

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra denied allegations that her government had offered large sums of money to People's Party MPs to buy their votes during the no-confidence debate, and said her administration was strong enough.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday after the Cabinet meeting, Paetongtarn said no attempts were made to lure opposition votes as accused.

“I don't know anything [about it]. There was no one paying [for vote]. There's none. We'd already talked [about the censure vote] with the coalition parties,” she said.

Her remarks followed People’s Party MP from Rayong province, Krit Silapachai, claiming that he was contacted by an influential political figure and offered a lot of money to vote against the opposition.
 Krit on Wednesday posted screenshots of a chat via Line application between him and another person, whose identity was veiled. The conversation showed that he was offered 20 million baht to vote for Paetongtarn on the night before the voting.

He alleged that he was offered another 5 million baht if he got kicked out of the party, with an additional monthly salary of 250,000 baht for him after leaving.

The lawmaker claimed he was offered a ministerial seat if he could bring over 10 People’s Party MPs to the ruling coalition.

Paetongtarn said she was sceptical about the accusation and suspected the evidence was cooked up.

“Our government already had plenty of votes. If we paid for them, it would have been a waste of money. It doesn't make sense.

 “Why would we buy them? It's better to save money, right? It doesn't make sense,” the premier reiterated.

Paetongtarn comfortably survived the no-confidence vote on Wednesday with 319 votes in favour, 162 against and seven abstentions.

Notably, at least seven MPs from the opposition camp voted in favour of Paetongtarn, with no one from the government side voting against the premier.

According to the Constitution, she would have had to quit if more than half of the House members voted against her, or more than 248 out of 493.

(2025/03/27-00:00)