By Thai Newsroom Reporters
SEVERAL PARTIES HAVE clandestinely tempted Move Forward MPs to defect and join their ranks in near future if the progressive camp is dissolved by court as soon as tomorrow (June 12), according to Move Forward leader Chaithawat Tulathon.
Without elaborating or identifying any specific parties by name, Chaithawat confirmed those camps have vigorously tried to recruit some Move Forward MPs into their respective camps in the face of tomorrow’s event in which the Constitutional Court may pass a verdict on the highly debatable charges of the Move Forward’s alleged design to undermine rule of the country by having earlier sought amendment to the draconian lese majeste law, also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code.
If found guilty as charged in court, the Move Forward will not only be immediately dissolved but the progressive party’s executive board members will be automatically deprived of their MP status, if any, and prohibited from assuming political positions at any levels for a number of years.
Nevertheless, the Move Forward leader declined to tell how many out of a total of 149 Move Forward MPs may already have decided or been largely inclined to leave for other parties in case that their party be eventually dissolved by court.
All legislators attached to a dissolved party are legally given a 60-day time to skip over to another party in order to keep their MP status intact.
The Move Forward’s previous executive board members who could possibly lose their MP status due to tomorrow’s possible dissolution of their party include several MPs, among them are Pita Limjaroenrat, Benja Saengchan, Suthep Oo-an, Apichart Sirisuntorn, Deputy House Speaker Padipat Santipada, who has earlier left the Move Forward for the Fair Party, and Chaithawat.
The possible dissolution could practically be a retroactive penalty being handed to those who had sat on the party’s previous executive board whilst others on the current executive board are not liable to its adverse effects, given the fact that the alleged rule-undermining statements had been made publicly in the time of the previous executive board.
Meanwhile, Chaithawat said most people would ultimately find such “old-style” shenanigans conducted by the head-hunting parties as “ultimately unacceptable” and that their future popularity will likely decline among constituents nationwide.
Without naming names, the Move Forward leader admitted that a number of his partisan colleagues have already been tempted to skip over to those parties as soon as his party is dissolved by court.
Alleged to have tempted the opposition lawmakers to defect to their respective coalition camps are the Pheu Thai under de facto party boss Thaksin Shinawatra, the Bhumjaithai under de facto party boss Newin Chidchob and the Palang Pracharath led by former deputy prime minister Prawit Wongsuwan.
Pita has earlier commented that all would-be defectors from the progressive camp would likely be defeated in the next election as evidently had been the case in last year’s election.
Chaithawat was responding to hearsay that those Move Forward MPs have been encouraged to join ranks of coalition MPs to cast a yea vote for a partisan candidate for prime minister to replace the Pheu Thai-attached Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin who might possibly be impeached by the Constitutional Court and immediately deprived of his prime-ministerial status, thus prompting the Pheu Thai-led coalition to find a new head of government.
However, it will almost certainly take a few months from now before a court ruling on the impeachment lawsuit against the prime minister is delivered.
CAPTION:
Move Forward party leader Chaithawat Tulathon, right in above photo and left in Front Page photo, and former party leader Pita Limjaroenrat. The Constitutional Court logo is overlaid at the corner of the above photo. Both images: Thai Rath
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