Thai election panel disqualifies princess as PM candidate

BANGKOK: Thailand’s election panel on Monday 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 king’s elder sister.

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 in a statement 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 Chanocha, who as army chief led the coup.

The panel did not mention a separate petition seeking to ban Thai Raksa Chart on the grounds that it violated election laws against using the monarchy in campaigning.

Party leaders were not immediately available for comment and cancelled a press conference planned for Monday.