PUBLISHED: August 12, 2024 at 16:36
Key figures of the defunct Move Forward Party raise their hands as they announce their new home, the People’s Party, in Bangkok last Friday. People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut is second from left. (Photo: Apichart Jinakul)
The Secretary General of the Electoral Commission (EC) has rejected a challenge to the status of the People’s Party, the reincarnation of the defunct Move Forward Party, on the grounds that the new party had just opened branches in all regions of the country.
Election Commission secretary-general Sawang Boonmee said on Monday that the Thinkakhaochaovilai Party, now renamed the People’s Party, held a meeting last week to open branches in all regions as required by law to retain its status as a political party, and that the party had already reported the opening of branches to the party registrar.
The report has only just arrived and is yet to be verified, so the EC website still needs to be updated accordingly, said Mr Sawang, who also serves as party registrar.
The Election Commission secretary-general also said the People’s Party would open another branch in the northern province of Phitsanulok to field a candidate there in a by-election. The by-election followed the disqualification of Phitsanulok MP Padipat Santipada, one of the former executive board members of the defunct Move Forward Party.
Mr Sawang was responding to an accusation by the conservative leader of the Thai Pakdee Party about the legitimacy of the People’s Party, the new home of Move Forward MPs after its dissolution last week.
On Sunday, Thai Pakdee chairman Dr Warong Dechgitvigrom expressed doubts about the People’s Party having at least one branch per region in the country, as required by law. He also said he would ask the EC to investigate the matter.
Dr Warong said that according to the EC website, the People’s Party has no branches in the South and Northeast.
