Thai court to hear case on princess political bid
Thailand’s constitutional court on Thursday said it would hear a case to dissolve the party which proposed a princess for prime minister, an ill-fated candidacy which threatens to sink the election strategy of the powerful Shinawatra clan.
The Thai Raksa Chart party nominated Princess Ubolratana for premier last Friday, a bombshell move bringing Thai royalty to frontline politics for the first time since the 1932 establishment of a constitutional monarchy.
Hours later the princess’s brother – Thailand’s powerful king Maha Vajiralongkorn – scuttled her political ambitions, hitting out at the attempt to bring her into politics as “highly inappropriate” and against royal traditions.
In the days since, chaos has enveloped Thai Raksa Chart, which falls under the tutelage of Thaksin Shinawatra, a divisive billionaire expremier who sits at the heart of Thailand’s bitter political schism.
On Wednesday the Election Commission (EC) handed the case for dissolution of Thai Raksa Chart to the constitutional court on the grounds the party had taken “action considered hostile to the constitutional monarchy.”
The court “unanimously agreed to accept the request by the Election Commission,” it said in a statement.
The next hearing is on February 27.
Party officials fear the case is being hustled through ahead of the March 24 election, which is already stacked in favor of the ruling junta, whose leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha wants to return as a civilian premier.
“We feel the case has been irregularly expedited,” Thai Raksa Chart key member Chayika Wongnapachant, who is a niece of Thaksin Shinawatra, told AFP.
“Without Thai Raksa Chart in the play, I believe it is going to be hard for the people to win a majority in parliament,” she said, adding the loss of the party’s 278 candidates could land a hammer blow to the aspirations of anti-junta parties.
“The party acted with good faith, loyalty and respect ... and we hope the court sees that,” she added.
Thai Raksa Chart aimed to add to the vote bank of the bigger Shinawatra electoral vehicle, Pheu Thai, in an election where secondary parties are targeting seats via a party list system.
After five years of junta rule Thailand remains a deeply divided kingdom.
Parties affiliated with Thaksin – who is adored by the rural poor but loathed by the Bangkokbased establishment – have won every election since 2001, but their governments have been battered by two coups and a barrage of court cases.