By Thai Newsroom Reporters
MOVE FORWARD LEADER Chaithawat Tulathon today (Mar. 13) downplayed rumours some of his MPs are quietly looking to leave his progressive camp for a conservative one in the wake of a possible dissolution of his own.
Chaithawat was responding to the unconfirmed hearsay that an unspecified number of elected lawmakers among a total of 149 Move Forward MPs might probably prefer to skip over to the Palang Pracharath, the third largest coalition partner led by former deputy prime minister Prawit Wongsuwan, among others if the Move Forward was finally dissolved at an order of the Constitutional Court for lese majeste charges.
The Move Forward leader made his comments following yesterday’s petition lodged by the Election Commission for the Constitutional Court to consider dissolving the party on charges of having earlier made partisan moves for amendment to the draconian lese majeste law, also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code, during last year’s nationwide electoral campaigns.
Chaithawat said he himself is yet to find out whether any Move Forward MPs may have already held talks with the Palang Pracharath leader as alleged in the media in effort to defect to the latter’s camp if the former one was eventually dissolved by court.
Elected lawmakers of a court-dissolved party are legally given a 60-day time to register themselves for membership of another existing party whilst all members of its executive board are to be legally prohibited from political activity for a maximum of 10 years.
Nevertheless, the Move Forward leader insisted that the dissolution of a party on grounds of lese majeste offences not be the right thing for those in the political arena of a democratic country to anticipate, let alone to enjoy.
“(The dissolution) is not a problem facing the Move Forward but a problem about the old-fashioned political system which should no longer exist. That sort of political system in which one party might merely look to defeat another by way of a dissolution of the party will ultimately be of no use for society as a whole. On the contrary, such an untoward situation will only go from bad to worse,” he said.
The Move Forward leader declined to either confirm or deny allegations that certain conservative camps may possibly have been involved in premeditated, hush-hush moves toward the dissolution of his party with the Constitutional Court’s highly contentious rulings.
Chaithawat insisted the Constitutional Court provide the opportunity for his party to defend themselves over the lese majeste lawsuit filed by the polling agency after the court had earlier ruled that such pro-amendment moves were equivalent to a “corrosive” act against the monarchy and that they immediately grind to a halt to prevent an otherwise undermining of the country’s highly revered establishment.
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Top and Front Page: Move Forward leader Chaithawat Tulathon. Photos: Thai Rath
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