Former Speaker of the House Wan Muhamad Nor Matha was elected yesterday to lead the Prachachart Party -- a new political outfit mainly comprising Muslim politicians from the Wadah, a political faction perceived as allies of the Pheu Thai Party.
Mr Wan Nor was voted in as the party's leader during its first official meeting at the Prince of Songkla University's Pattani campus.
The meeting was attended by more than 1,000 people, including party members, and local religious leaders from the deep South.
The meeting also voted to endorse party policies and regulations, as well as select party executives.
Pol Col Tawee Sodsong, former chief of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, was chosen as party secretary-general, while former Pattani MP Muk Sulaiman and Sorapol Nakwanich, Mr Wan Nor's close associate, were elected party treasurer and party registrar respectively.
Newly-elected deputy party leaders include Areepen Uttarasin, a leading member of the Wadah group and party co-founder; Worawi Makudi, a former Football Association of Thailand president; and Nitiphumthanat Ming-rujiralai, a columnist and a former Pheu Thai MP.
"The new party brings together knowledgeable and experienced people of diverse cultural and religious backgrounds from all walks of life," said Pol Col Tawee.
"The party does not belong to any particular political or religious group, but to all people," he insisted.
Pol Col Tawee added that the party chose to hold its first meeting in the southern border province of Pattani because it wanted to show that ''Bangkok is not Thailand''.
One of the party's flagship campaign policies is to restore peace in the strife-torn deep South, said Pol Col Tawee, who once played a leading role in peace talks with southern insurgents during the Yingluck Shinawatra administration.
He also said the party aims to foster prosperity in the deep South with plans to make Pattani a regional trade and investment hub.
Mr Wan Nor said that one of the major problems besetting the country is a monopoly on power to govern the country. He stressed the need for decentralisation to better address local concerns.
The Wadah faction was co-founded by veteran Pattani politicians Den Tomeena and Wan Muhamad Nor Matha. Mr Wan Nor, the leader of the Wadah group, was appointed interior minister during the former Thaksin Shinawatra administration.
The faction teamed up with the Democratic Party, and then the New Aspiration Party led by Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyuth, before migrating to the Thai Rak Thai in 2002.
After a coup that overthrew the Thaksin government in 2006, Thai Rak Thai was dissolved by a constitutional tribunal for violating an electoral law during that year's poll.
The party's 111 members, including Mr Wan Nor, were banned from participating in politics for five years. Some later moved to Pheu Thai, which was a reincarnation of the Thai Rak Thai Party.
In the 2011 general election, the Wadah faction was wiped out in the three southernmost provinces in what represented a shock setback for members and supporters of the group, which was once hugely popular in the Muslim-dominated provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.
Former Democratic Party MP Peerayos Rahimmula said there was nothing surprising about the make-up of the Prachachart Party as the new party comprises mainly former MPs from the Pheu Thai Party.
In the next election, the party aims to win 10-15 House seats from the southern region, which is currently dominated by Democrats, Mr Areepen said.