Future Forward party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit’s fate now rests with the Constitutional Court, which will decide whether he is qualified to retain his parliamentary membership, following an EC probe into his alleged shareholding in a media business after he registered his election candidacy.
An Election Commission Press release today said that the EC referred the case to the court because it was satisfied that the “rising star” young politician did still hold 675,000 shares of V Luck Media Company stock when he registered his poll candidacy, which is prohibited by the Constitution and the MP Election Act.
The case was first submitted to the EC by political activist Srisuwan Janya. The EC investigated the case, but decided to approve the election result of 149 party-list MPs, including Thanathorn, for fear that further investigation might delay the official announcement of election results, which could have an impact on the allocation of party-list seats.
Thanathorn has submitted evidence to the EC to prove that he had transferred all his media shares to his mother on January 8th, before he registered his candidacy. Some media reports, however, said he was campaigning in Buri Ram that day and doubted he could travel back to Bangkok in time to transfer his shares.
If it could be proven to the Constitutional Court that Thanathorn still held the media shares when he registered his poll candidacy, he will be disqualified as an MP.
