Pannika banned from politics after being accused of insulting royal
The door for Pannika Wanich, former spokeswoman of the Future Forward party, Move Forward's predecessor, to return to politics, has been firmly slammed following the court’s ruling to permanently revoke her eligibility to run for election due to her social media posts concerning the monarchy.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday made a decision on the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) petition accusing Pannika of seriously violating ethical standards during her time as a Future Forward MP. The court ruled to permanently revoke her eligibility to run for office.
According to the court, Pannika's Facebook posts showed disrespectful behaviour towards the monarchy.
The court said that she could have deleted all the images and messages from her post, but she chose not to do so, even though doing so would have prevented the effects of those images and messages.
Pannika, who is also the leading figure in the Progressive Movement, was therefore charged with violating ethical standards according to Section 235 of the Constitution and other laws.
On June 11, 2019, Thailand's serial litigator, Srisuwan Janya, submitted a letter to NACC, requesting it to investigate Pannika's Facebook posts since he believed the content could endanger the monarchy and constituted a significant ethical breach.
Later, on February 28, 2022, the NACC committee unanimously approved a resolution that stated Pannika Wanich had gravely breached the MP’s code of ethics, which may have caused the general public to have major misconceptions about the monarchy.
One of Pannika's alleged posts said, "Birthday, so what?", which appeared on December 5, Rama IX's birthday.
Pannika had previously been prohibited from holding political office for 10 years following the dissolution of the Future Forward party.
She worked as a journalist at Voice TV from 2011 to 2017 before moving into politics and becoming a spokesperson and MP of the Future Forward party.
