Election Commission dismisses concerns over People’s Party branches
Commission says new party has until April 3 next year to set up branches in all four regions of Thailand as per the Political Parties Act
The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday played down the controversy about Move Forward’s new avatar People’s Party (PP) not having enough branches across the nation.
Sawaeng Boonmee, EC secretary-general, said the PP has not violated the Political Parties Act when it comes to opening branches.
He added that the party has until April 3 next year to open branches in all four regions of the country.
Former Move Forward MPs shifted to the micro Thinkakhao Chaowilai Party and renamed it People’s Party.
Sawaeng was responding to a threat by Warong Dechkitvigrom, chairman of the Thai Phakdee Party, who said last week that he would push for the PP’s dissolution because it does not have a branch in each of the country’s four regions.
Warong said the micro Thinkakhao Chaowilai Party had been registered in 2012 and the EC website stated it did not have branches in all regions. He added that the Political Parties Act requires that a party must have branches in all regions of the country within a year of its establishment, or it will be dissolved. Hence, he said, the party should have been disbanded instead of being taken over by 143 former Move Forward MPs.
Move Forward was dissolved by the Constitutional Court on August 7 for allegedly trying to overthrow the monarchy.
Sawaeng said Thinkakhao had met the requirements of having branches in all four regions earlier, but on April 4, it informed the political party registrar that it had to dissolve three branches and only retain the Chiang Mai branch.
He added that the Political Parties Act gives all parties up to one year to establish branches, so the PP has until April 3 next year to open branches in three other regions.
He added that the PP had informed the political party registrar that it was opening more branches, but did not elaborate.
He only said PP is advised to carefully observe the rules of soliciting donations because breaching these rules could result in the party’s dissolution.
Some PP critics have suggested that the party may be violating the law by soliciting donations via electronic transfers.
However, Sawaeng said the law does not prohibit parties from receiving donations via electronic transfers. Each party must have its own regulations to govern the receipt of donations, he said.
He added that all donations should be credited to the party’s bank account, adding that the PP can use the bank account of Thinkakhao Chaowilai Party for the time being. If it uses another bank account, then it should be able to explain the need for doing so to the political party registrar, Sawaeng added.
He said PP is also required to inform the registrar of the donations and the donors’ names every month. It is also required to issue a receipt for donations of 5,000 baht or higher, Sawaeng said.
