The Constitutional Court yesterday stripped Thepthai Senpong of his status as a Democrat Party MP following his conviction last year for fraud in the 2014 election of the Nakhon Si Thammarat provincial administration organisation (PAO) chief.
Mr Thepthai said he accepted the ruling against him, which was passed in an unanimous vote.
The court also decided the revocation of his status as an MP should be retroactive from Aug 16, when the court ordered Mr Thepthai to suspend his work as an MP due to his conviction.
Mr Thepthai and his younger brother Manote Senpong were each jailed for two years by the Criminal Court in Nakhon Si Thammarat for vote-buying ahead of the poll for PAO chief.
The court also handed down a 10-year election participation ban against the brothers.
They had been freed on bail after posting securities of 200,000 baht in cash with the court as they set about appealing the Criminal Court's ruling.
The Criminal Court's ruling immediately threw Mr Thepthai's MP status in doubt as Section 98 (4) of the constitution prohibits anyone banned from taking part in an election from applying to become an MP.
Mr Thepthai, however, said he believed his MP status should remain intact because the election participation ban was slapped on him while he was a sitting MP, whereas the charter provision applied to election candidates only.
He said after yesterday's ruling that his case may serve as a pointer to potential issues with the charter.
Mr Thepthai asked what would have happened if the Appeal and Supreme Courts had overruled the lower court's verdict and later cleared him of the vote-buying charges.
It would mean, he said, he would be reinstated as an MP but only after suffering the loss of MP status without any remedial assistance or compensation.
He insisted that the issue of a person's status as an MP issue should only be considered by the Constitutional Court after a case has cleared the Supreme Court.