A former adviser to the Ombudsman has filed a complaint seeking the dissolution of the Move Forward party for actions he deems hostile to democracy with the king as head of state.
Nattaporn Toprayoon submitted the petition to the Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday, asking the polls regulator to proceed with the party’s dissolution.
If the EC agrees with him, it will send the case to the Constitutional Court, recommending the disbandment.
The 70-year-old former lawyer claimed some members of the party — formed last year from what was left of disbanded Future Forward — had encouraged and supported youth-led protesters by using their positions as MPs to bail them.
Mr Nattaporn viewed that doing so disrupted peace and order and was deemed hostile to democracy with the king as head of state.
The party also submitted a bill to amend Section 112 of the Criminal Code on lese majeste, he added.
Mr Nattaporn said he had collected evidence showing the party had breached Sections 45 and 92 of the Political Parties Act, which prohibit a party from promoting or supporting anyone in creating unrest or undermining good morality of people, and to oppose the rule of the country, respectively.
“It’s clear the party was in cahoots with the demonstrators, which have stirred up unrest. Its executives have bailed the protesters and the party set up a working panel to amend Section 112,” he said, referring to one of the demonstrators’ demands to reform the monarchy.
Among the evidence he cited was the party’s show of support for the iLaw constitution-amendment bill, but did not elaborate.
“Under Section 255 of the charter, an amendment can be made [to the constitution] but not a rewrite of it, especially Chapters 1 and 2 [on the form of government and the king] which can by no means be changed.”
He said he had also submitted a petition with the Constitution Court questioning the legitimacy of the party’s role in trying to rewrite the constitution and planned to file a similar complaint with Parliament.
Last year, Mr Nattaporn asked the court to disband the Future Forward Party in what was known as the Illuminati case. The court dismissed his petition.
Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat on the same day dismissed Mr Nattaporn’s accusations as “nonsense”.
“Upon hearing the news, I found his name is vaguely familiar — he was involved in the Klong Chan Cooperative money-laundering case. He earlier tried to disband Future Forward with absurd charges about the Illuminati.
“After reading his petition, I found none of the facts supports what he was accusing us of. It’s even more absurd than the Illuminati case. Our party is considering accusing him of violating Section 101 of the Political Parties Act, on false accusations against parties.
“All things considered, the petitioning can’t be viewed as anything but an effort to distract us and create a diversion from the damaging issues faced by the government ahead of the no-confidence debate in two weeks,” Mr Pita wrote on Facebook.