The Democrat Party has lost a party-list seat due to one of its losing candidates in the March 24 election last year being found guilty of violating the election law, according to the Election Commission (EC).
The EC announced yesterday that it has taken one list MP away from the Democrats and given it to the Thai Rak Tham, a micro-party.
This is a result of a Supreme Court judgement last year which found Chartchai Worapipat, the Democrat candidate for Chanthaburi, guilty of intentionally spreading misinformation during the election campaign. His right to contest elections has been withdrawn for 10 years.
Even though Mr Chartchai failed to win a seat, he garnered 19,711 votes which were combined with the Democrats' nationwide constituency votes for calculating the party's list MPs.
The EC determined the Democrats' overall constituency votes gave the party 20 list MPs.
In light of the Supreme Court's judgement against Mr Charthchai, the EC withdrew the 19,711 votes from the Democrats' nationwide pool.
The Democrats are now down to 19 list MPs. The party's total number of MPs, including its constituency representatives, now stands at 53.
The recalculation, in turn, has given a list MP back to Thai Rak Tham.
The party briefly had one list MP after the general election results were confirmed by the EC on May 8 last year, but the seat was lost following a by-election in Chiang Mai just three days later which altered the allocation of list seats.