The Election Commission (EC) has approved applications, marking the first step toward setting up political parties, submitted by 15 political groups.
EC acting secretary-general Jarungvith Phumma, in his capacity as the registrar of political parties, Thursday said he has issued letters to the 15 groups, informing them their registration documents have been approved.
Pol Col Jarungvith said more applications for party registration will gradually be approved after the Songkran festival which concludes early next week.
At this stage, registration, which was held from March 2 to 31, only involved political groups submitting the party names and logos of their choice.
The EC then checked its database to make sure there was no duplication of names and logos, as well as the qualifications of the applicants.
After the registration documents are accepted, the groups must find at least 500 people to be their members, seed funds of no less than one million baht and submit a request to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) for them to hold a general assembly. If approved, the parties will proceed to select their executive boards.
The parties are required to select a party leader and executives and write a party manifesto and regulations for submission to the EC for consideration before their party status is formally endorsed. At the moment some party activities are held back by the regime's political ban.
The entire registration process must be completed within 180 days.
Meanwhile, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) secretary-general Nattawut Saikuar Thursday said a recent UDD meeting had agreed that its key figures would be free to decide whether to join any parties on condition those parties must uphold the principle of democracy and must not support the regime clinging on to power, he said.
Several of the UDD key figures were former MPs of the Pheu Thai Party and had already confirmed their party membership on April 4, he said.
Mr Nattawut also said the UDD leaders had not yet entertained the idea of setting up a political party, although some red-shirt members may want to form a party.
Former senator Paiboon Nititawan, who applied to register the Prachachon Patiroob (Reform People Party), said Thursday that his group has now completed all the prerequisites and is set to submit paperwork to the EC to consider endorsing the status of his new political party later this month.
His group is among those 15 whose applications for the party registration have been approved by the EC.