By Thai Newsroom Reporters
A BY-ELECTION FOR a constituency-based MP to replace former deputy House speaker Padipat Santipada will likely be held by the middle of next month.
The Election Commission is expected to schedule the by-election in Phitsanulok’s Constituency 1 for Sept. 15 to find replacement for Padipat who was immediately stripped of his MP status by the Constitutional Court alongside five other MPs of the court-dissolved Move Forward earlier this month.
No by-election will be held for the former Move Forward MPs including former party leaders Pita Limjaroenrat and Chaithawat Tulathon since they all were party-listed lawmakers who will not be replaced with anybody else due to the dissolution of the reformist party.
The brand-new People’s Party, a resurrection of the Move Forward, will definitely contest the by-election in the upper central province against one of the current coalition partners with the Palang Pracharath being the likely contender.
Padipat was among the former lawmakers who had immediately lost their MP status at an unanimous order of the Constitutional Court due to their having previously performed as member of a former Move Forward executive board before the former deputy House speaker skipped over to the Fair Party.
The reformist party had been dissolved by the Constitutional Court, all judges of which had been named by a coup junta and junta-appointed senators, due to contentious, complicated allegations of having attempted to undermine rule with the monarch as head of state by pushing for campaign-promised amendment to the draconian lese majeste law, also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code.
The former MP of Phitsanulok had not only lost his MP status but the seat of the first deputy House speaker due to the punitive court verdict which has also prohibited him and the others from assuming any political positions at all levels for a 10-year period.
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Top and Front Page: Former deputy House speaker Padipat Santipada. Photos: Thai Rath
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