Party-list MPs announced, including Thanathorn

Party-list MPs announced, including Thanathorn

The Election Commission announced the winners of the party-list MP contest on Thursday following the election on March 24. (Photo by Patipat Janthong)
The Election Commission announced the winners of the party-list MP contest on Thursday following the election on March 24. (Photo by Patipat Janthong)

The Election Commission (EC) has announced the roster of party-list MPs from the March 24 general election, comprising candidates from 26 parties.

The results released on Wednesday were for 149 out of 150 seats. The last seat will be calculated from the vote in an election rerun in constituency 8 in Chiang Mai on May 26.

Future Forward scored the highest number of party-list seats -- 50 -- including one for its firebrand leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, who is fighting an allegation he owned shares in a media company during the election campaign. 

The Democrat Party came second with 19, one more seat than Palang Pracharath, followed by Bhumjaithai, which bagged 12 seats. Pheu Thai received none as the number of its constituency MPs exceeded its share of the popular vote. 

Fourteen small parties were allocated one seat each, although some did not win a single seat in the constituency race.

Pheu Thai opposed the EC's results, arguing that any party that received fewer than 71,000 votes -- the number of votes per candidate in the 500-seat House, given the number of votes cast  -- should not receive a seat.

The EC's announcement came after the Constitutional Court earlier in the day ruled unanimously that Section 128 of the MP election law on detailed list-MP calculation is constitutional, paving the way for the EC's formula to prevail.

The issue of which list MP calculation formula should be used in deciding the number of list MPs for each party is crucial after constituency-based election results showed the anti-coup coalition had only a few seats more than the pro-military side.

One formula would give the anti-junta side the numbers to form a government, while another -- the one chosen by the EC -- would give the pro-regime side the upper hand. It appears to favour small parties that won fewer votes than the number required to get a seat under the complicated mixed-member apportionment system, according to political observers.

Future Forward Party secretary-general Piyabutr Saengkanokkul said in April that his party would receive 57 party-list seats under the formula discarded by the EC -- seven more than they were awarded on Wednesday.

Pheu Thai's Pokin Polakul earlier said only 16 political parties should be allocated party-list seats because the number of votes they captured exceeded the number required to receive one. Twenty-six parties are represented in the EC announcement -- with most of the smaller parties expected to favour the pro-military coalition.

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