As anticipated, political petitioner Ruangkrai Leekitwattana lodged a petition with the Election Commission (EC) today, to seek the dissolution of the opposition Move Forward party. This follows the Constitutional Court’s decision yesterday that the party’s campaign to amend the lèse majesté law (Article 112 of the Criminal Code) constitutes an attempt to topple the constitutional monarchy.
Meanwhile, a similar petition was submitted to the EC by Thirayut Suwankhesorn, the lawyer who initiated the original petition to the Constitutional Court, which resulted to the ruling yesterday. In his petition, however, he only asked the court to stop the Move Forward party from undertaking activities related to amending the lèse majesté law.
Ruangkrai, a solo petitioner like Srisuwan Janya, claims that, based on the court’s ruling, the Move Forward party has violated Article 92 of the Political Parties Act which, on conviction, can result in the dissolution of the party and the withdrawal of the party executives’ right to contest elections.
He cited the case of the Thai Raksa Chart party, an offshoot of the Pheu Thai party, which was dissolved by the Constitutional Court for its nomination of Princess Ubolratana as its prime ministerial candidate. The party’s 14 executives were also banned from contesting elections for ten years.
A member of the Palang Pracharath party, Ruangkrai said that the court’s ruling is binding on the Election and National Anti-Corruption commissions and parliament and they are duty-bound to comply.
He also said that his next target, after the Move Forward party, will be the Pheu Thai party and others.
