The People’s Party still has time to open enough branches as required by law, but it must carefully check its donors to prevent the risk of dissolution, according to the secretary-general of the Election Commission.
The People’s Party is the successor to the Move Forward Party, which was dissolved last week by the Constitutional Court on grounds that its proposals to amend the lese-majeste law represented a threat to the constitutional monarchy.
All 143 members of Move Forward immediately joined the little-known Thinkakhaochaovilai Party, which has been registered with the Election Commission for 10 years but has never had an elected MP. It was then renamed the People’s Party.
Mr Sawaeng said the Thinkakhaochaovilai Party informed him on April 4 that it had closed three branches and kept only one open, in the northern province of Chiang Mai. Therefore, it had until April 3, 2025, to open at least one branch per region in the country to remain in compliance with EC rules, he said. That deadline will now apply to the People’s Party.
“For now, the status of the political party remains intact,” said Mr Sawaeng.
He made the comments in response to a challenge by the ultra-royalist Thai Pakdee Party to the status of the People’s Party. It questioned whether the party had enough branches.
Thai Pakdee also posed questions about donations to the People’s Party. Mr Sawaeng said the party could receive donations through the verified bank account of the Thinkakhaochaovilai Party but it must check the profiles of its donors.
If a donor’s qualifications were prohibited by law, that could lead to party dissolution, he said.
The People’s Party signed up 50,000 members in its first three days of existence and took in more than 25 million baht in donations, most of them in amounts of 500 baht or less for membership fees.