The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has lodged a complaint against the administrator of the CSI LA Facebook page for posting four photos it claimed were evidence of soldiers being ordered to vote for a particular party.
One photo showed soldiers standing in a queue to cast ballots at an advanced voting centre upcountry with a caption reading: "Conscripts being ordered to vote … an insider tip-off."
That was a total misrepresentation, argued the NCPO's legal officer Col Burin Thongprapai who yesterday asked the Technology Crime Suppression Division to act against the page administrator.
The picture of the soldiers queuing only reflected their military "discipline", he said.
The army respects soldiers' right to vote and has never told them to support certain parties, Col Burin insisted.
Police were yesterday asked to charge CSI LA with disseminating false information on the internet, an offence under Section 14 of the Computer Crime Act.
According to Col Burin, another three photos also carried similarly slanderous captions.
He warned people to avoid sharing the photos as they would be subject to the "same penalties" as those who posted the photos originally, which include a maximum five-year jail term, Col Burin said.
On Sunday, army spokesman Winthai Suwaree said soldiers are free to cast their vote for whichever party they want.
It is not the first time CSI LA has been in hot water. Last year, the Samui Provincial Court granted police a warrant for the arrest of its administrator and 12 other people for posting and sharing a false report about the alleged rape of a British tourist on Koh Tao, a resort island off Surat Thani.
CSI LA became known after it compiled pictures of the luxury watches worn by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, who was earlier accused of not including them in his asset declaration to the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
The NACC cleared him of the alleged wrongdoing late last year.
