By Thai Newsroom Reporters
ALL 143 FORMER MOVE FORWARD MPs will together join a new party on the upcoming Friday to maintain their MP status following today’s (Aug. 7) dissolution of the reformist party, said ex-Move Forward MP Sirikanya Tansakun.
Sirikanya confirmed all the 143 ex-Move Forward MPs will definitely join the other party en masse on the upcoming Friday but stopped short of naming the camp to which they have planned to be attached as required by law.
Sirikanya, a former party-listed lawmaker, is largely expected to become leader of that particular party.
Of a total of 148 former Move Forward MPs, five were immediately deprived of their MP status due to their having performed either as members of the party’s former or current executive boards between 2021 and the present day during which they had allegedly campaigned for amendment to the contentious, draconian lese majeste law, also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code.
Meanwhile, former Move Forward leader/former Move Forward MP Pita Limjaroenrat vowed to devote himself to doing politically-related tasks despite being deprived of his MP status alongside several others due to the dissolution of the reformist party.
Pita forecast the ex-Move Forward MPs who are yet to find another party to join in a 60-day period to maintain their MP status will likely win most MP seats in the next general election so that, he said, they could finally set up a post-election government of their own.
Pita said none of his colleagues regretted today’s untoward phenomenon and that they ultimately insisted on their innocence over the rule-undermining charges and on continuing to engage in political activities either with or without MP status until Thailand becomes a truly free democratic country.
An estimated 14 million people voted for the Move Forward party-listed and constituency-based candidates in last year’s election, turning the reformist party into the largest elected one with 151 MPs.
Former Move Forward leader Chaithawat Tulathon raised concerns over the likelihood that today’s Constitutional Court’s ruling would be detrimental to future efforts at parliament to amend the highly contentious lese majeste law whilst definitions of the country’s rule with the monarch as head of state would likely be twisted at the whims of undemocratic, powerful elements.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Former Move Forward MP Sirikanya Tansakun together with other former MPs of the dissolved party at a press conference today, Aug. 7. 2024.
Insert: Former Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat.
Front Page: Former Move Forward MP Sirikanya Tansakun and former leader of the dissolved party Chaithawat Tulathon together with other former MPs of the dissolved party. All photos: Thai Rath
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