A group of supporters of the opposition Move Forward Party (MFP) on Friday petitioned the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) to investigate malfeasance allegedly committed by the Election Commission (EC) in its handling of the MFP's dissolution case.
The move follows the EC's petitioning the Constitutional Court to disband the MFP after the court had on Jan 31 ruled that the MFP's efforts to change Section 112 of the Criminal Code, the lese majeste law, indicated an intention to undermine the constitutional monarchy.
The petition submission was led by Phattarapong Supakson, a lawyer, who spoke of why the MFP supporters believe the EC had committed malfeasance, prohibited under Section 157 of the Criminal Code.
Mr Phattarapong said it is the EC's responsibility to ensure the MFP's policy on the lese majeste law is legitimate and constitutional after the policy was submitted to the EC upon the party's registration for the last general election.
According to the lawyer, now that the EC is asking the court to disband the MFP, the EC should also be held responsible for its alleged failure to carefully examine the MFP's lese majeste law policy and reject it at the beginning.
The commission's alleged failure to perform its duty could be seen as malfeasance, Mr Phattarapong said.
Along with the Jan 31 ruling, the court also ordered the MFP to cease all attempts to rewrite Section 112.
After the EC had submitted its MFP dissolution petition to the court earlier this week, the court then later asked the EC to submit additional documents for their consideration in support of the submitted petition.
The EC has said it is doing as instructed by the court and is providing the requested documents.
The court said in a statement it would not begin examining the MFP dissolution petition until all the necessary documents pertaining to the case had been received from the EC.
EC secretary-general Sawang Boonmee has said the additional documents in question were those that had been submitted by political activist Ruangkrai Leekitwattana along with his petition that called on the EC to disband the MFP.
Mr Ruangkrai on Friday said he had already been contacted by the EC regarding the required documents and has already sent them to the EC as requested.