Hundreds confirm Pheu Thai Party membership

HUNDREDS OF Pheu Thai politicians yesterday confirmed their party membership, with one notable exception: Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, a key figure in the previous ruling party and its likely future leader, failed to sign up.
Sudarat appeared at the party’s headquarters in the afternoon, hours after the membership confirmation began.

She said that she had applied to become a Pheu Thai member in 2013 but that due to a registration mistake, her name was not in the party’s membership system. “Whenever the party resumes accepting new members, I will apply,” she added.

Although she is officially not a party member, Sudarat has been mingling with Pheu Thai politicians and has appeared at the party’s head office on many occasions. She was a key figure in the now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party, which was then led by Pheu Thai’s patriarch, Thaksin Shinawatra. 
Thaksin reportedly favours Sudarat to become the next Pheu Thai leader although she is opposed by various party factions, reportedly including one led by Thaksin’s sister Yaowapa Wongsawat. 

Sudarat said yesterday that she did not volunteer to become a candidate to contest for the party’s leadership, adding that the current leader, Wirode Pao-in, is already doing a good job. “I have never said that I want to become the party leader. The question is whether I want to. I am just a small person who is doing her duty for the organisation,” she said.

When asked if she actually wanted to become the party leader, Sudarat said: “I don’t think anyone wants to.”
Yaowapa’s husband Somchai Wongsawat, another key Pheu Thai figure, was among the party’s former MPs and politicians who confirmed their membership yesterday. 
But Yaowapa did not show up to confirm membership at the party’s HQ yesterday. Somchai, a former prime minister, said it was because his wife opted to wash her hands of politics. He said he did not know the reason, adding that reporters had to ask Yaowapa themselves.
Somchai has been regarded as another strong candidate to become the next party leader due to his strong connections with the Shinawatra family.
When asked if he would lead the party, Somchai responded: “I don’t have much thought about that. Everything has its process. I am just a party member.”
More than 500 Pheu Thai’s former MPs, former Cabinet members and former election candidates showed up at the party’s HQ yesterday to confirm their party memberships. They each paid a lifetime membership fee of Bt2,000 to establish a party fund required by the new Political Parties Act. Altogether, more than Bt1 million was collected.

At the Chart Thai Pattana Party’s HQ, more than 30 former MPs and politicians confirmed their membership yesterday. 
All of them paid a lifetime membership fee of Bt2,000.