The leader of the Kla Dharma Party, Narumon Pinyosinwat, confirmed on Tuesday that the 20 MPs kicked out of the Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) last week will be joining her party "soon".
Ms Narumon, who is serving as the Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister in the current cabinet, also said that Thamanat Prompow will be given an important role in the party.
However, she declined to confirm reports which claimed Capt Thamanat would be appointed as the party's chief adviser, while Pai Leeke, a former PPRP MP for Kamphaeng Phet, would be named Kla Dharma's secretary-general.
The 20 MPs were officially expelled from the PPRP last week over their close ties with Capt Thamanat, who had a falling out with party chief Prawit Wongsuwon.
The party is working with the Election Commission (EC) to ensure the MPs are properly registered as Kla Dharma members before the end of the year, she added.
Responding to her comments, EC secretary-general Sawaeng Boonmee said the EC is still waiting for the minutes of the PPRP meeting, which resolved to expel the 20 MPs from the party.
If the minimum requirement to officially expel these 20 MPs was met -- which means three-quarters of the party's executives voted to expel them -- the membership of these MPs would have automatically ended the moment the motion was passed, said Mr Sawaeng.
"If so, these MPs are now free to move to the new party," he said before stressing that without examining the minutes of the meeting, he couldn't confirm whether or not the expulsion was done in the proper manner.
However, he said, the EC had already been informed by Kla Dharma that the MPs had signed up to join the party.
Kla Dharma earlier said it would submit a written statement about the transfer of the 20 MPs by Tuesday. As of press time Tuesday, it remained unclear if the party had done so.
