THAI PRINCESS DISQUALIFIED AS PM CANDIDATE
Election Commission excludes her from candidates’ list
THAILAND’S election panel yesterday disqualified the sister of the king from running for prime minister, putting an end to a stunning, short-lived candidacy by echoing King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s words that royalty should be “above politics”.
The Election Commission released the official list of parties’ candidates for prime minister without the name of Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi, 67.
The list excluded Ubolratana “because every member of the royal family comes within the application of the same rule requiring the monarch to be above politics and to be politically neutral”, the panel said after a meeting.
The princess had accepted the nomination of the Thai Raksa Chart party, a populist movement drawn from supporters of ousted ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been at the centre of more than a decade of turmoil in Thai politics.
The March 24 elections are the first since a 2014 military coup toppled a pro-Thaksin government. Among the candidates for prime minister is the current junta leader Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who as army chief led the coup.
The panel did not mention a separate petition seeking to ban the Thai Raksa Chart party on the grounds that it violated election laws against using the monarchy in campaigning.
Ubolratana’s surprise nomination broke with a tradition that members of the royal family stay out of politics. Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy since 1932, but the royal family wields great influence and commands the devotion of millions, with the king considered to be semi-divine.
Bangkok has been locked in political conflict for more than a decade, with street protests sometimes paralysing the capital for months at a time, between supporters of Thaksin’s populist brand of politics and the mostlymiddle class and urban establishment who identify with the monarchy and the military.
Parties loyal to Thaksin have defeated pro-establishment parties to win every election since 2001. Each of their governments has been removed by court rulings or coups since 2006.
The hashtag “#coup” was trending on Thai-language Twitter yesterday. A fake document also circulated online claiming the junta had sacked commanders in the army, navy and air force.
The rumours were false and intended to destabilise Thailand, said the spokesman for the ruling junta, Colonel Winthai Suvaree.
“This is organised behaviour with hope to gain something, particularly to disturb the peace of the country during this important moment,” he said.