Pheu Thai Party disagrees with bid to dissolve Palang Pracharath Party

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

THE PHEU THAI PARTY, speculated to join ranks with the Palang Pracharath Party to set up a coalition after the next general election, has aired dissent to the dissolution of a party for any reason other than a proven design to abolish democratic rule.

Pheu Thai top party leader Chonlanan Srikaew said today (Oct. 29) the largest opposition party ultimately disagrees with the dissolution of any party for reasons irrelevant to a possible plot to abandon democratic rule with the monarch as head of state.

His comments were made in response to the Election Commission’s ongoing investigation into last year’s reception by the Palang Pracharath Party of three million baht in cash donation from a Chinese-born businessman who might have allegedly laundered the money from outlawed businesses. The Thai-naturalised donor, namely Chainat Kornchayanan, has been recently arrested as owner of an illegally-operated bar in Yannawa area where customers and others were found to have used drugs.

If found guilty by court of receiving the laundered money albeit unknowingly, the largest coalition partner headed by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan would likely be dissolved under the Political Parties Act, according to former election commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn.

Prawit has shrugged off concerns over the possibility of his party being dissolved for receiving the allegedly laundered money, saying his camp had observed the law and regulations pertaining to cash donations to fund partisan activities.

Chonlanan said the Pheu Thai Party holds onto the ideological principles against the dissolution of any party for any reasons other than anti-democracy design though this particular party has practically been resurrected twice from the dissolved People’s Power Party and Thai Rak Thai Party over the last decade.

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is largely viewed as de facto Pheu Thai boss who has repeatedly forecast a landslide victory for his camp after the nationwide election, speculated early next year, which would almost certainly lead to the setting up of a Pheu Thai-led coalition government and his returning home from self-exile overseas.

Chonlanan earlier remarked that the Pheu Thai/Palang Pracharath coalition might possibly be set upon condition that Prawit’s camp no longer name Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha as partisan candidate for prime minister again.

CAPTION:

Top: Palang Pracharath and Pheu Thai party logos next to the symbol of Thai democracy -the constitution on a tray at the Democracy Monument.

Front Page: Deputy Prime Minister/Palang Pracharath Party leader Prawit Wongsuwan, left, and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, right. Photo: Getty Images and published by BBC

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