The Central Administrative Court is expected to rule late this month on a case that could nullify results of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) election and suspend the present chairman from doing his job.
Teerawut Prakaysantisuk, a legal adviser to Visit Limprana, who contested the FTI chairman election this month, filed a complaint asking the court to suspend new chairman Supant Mongkolsuthree until its verdict.
He said the election on March 17 for committee members who voted for the new chairman this week was not conducted transparently or processed secretly as required by Industry Ministry regulations.
"The voting cards were cast outside. This meant others obviously saw the voting result and realised whom you voted for," Mr Teerawut said.
He claimed non-FTI members were able to vote in the election, making it invalid.
"This provides a reason for the FTI to alter the election system to be more transparent," said Mr Teerawut.
If Mr Supant is suspended, the court will be asked to order former committee members to take charge so that the FTI's operations are not affected.
Earlier this week, Mr Supant, the 56-year-old chief executive of Synnex (Thailand), appeared in public as the new FTI chairman after most of the 348 committee members threw their support behind him.
The battle for the FTI chairmanship had intensified due to differences between large firms and small and medium-sized enterprises within the organisation.
Mr Visit, the previous vice-chairman, was named as an FTI consultant and vowed to worked with Mr Supant.
Mr Supant insisted the voting process was transparent and said there was a high likelihood the court would turn down the petition.
FTI secretary Kitti Thangjitmaneesakda argued the election process did not need to be done secretly, saying the FTI election was different from that of senators or members of parliament.
While admitting it was possible some FTI members might have seen whom others had voted for, he insisted the election system was not illegal.