Thailand’s Constitutional Court is today scheduled to consider whether to accept the Election Commission’s (EC) petition for the court to rule on the qualifications of Future Forward party leader Thanathorn Juangroongkit over his alleged ownership of media shares at the time he registered his candidacy for MP.
An informed source said, if the court agrees to accept the case for consideration, it would consider two related issues; whether to issue an injunction to temporarily suspend Thanathorn from performing his duty as a party-list MP and whether there are sufficient grounds to disqualify the Future Forward party leader over his alleged shareholding in ‘V Luck Media Company’, as recommended by the EC.
The source said that there is no requirement for the court to rule today. However, if the court believes that the EC’s case against Thanathorn has merit, it can suspended him from performing his duty as an MP for a maximum of 60 days, pending a final ruling.
Thanathorn cannot claim parliamentary immunity because this is not a criminal case, the source added.
The case against Thanathorn was initiated by political activist Mr. Srisuwan Janya, who questioned Thanathorn’s claim that he had transferred all his shares in the media company on January 8th, before he registered his candidacy.
