Thailand’s prime ministerial front-runner Pita Limjaroenrat is to be investigated over whether he was qualified to run in last month’s election, a top official said yesterday, in another setback as he battles to win backing to be prime minister.
Pita, the 42-year-old leader of the progressive Move Forward party, whose election victory stunned Thailand’s military-backed establishment, has faced multiple complaints from rivals, three of which the poll body has dismissed for late submission, while four others against the party have been thrown out.
However, Pita is by no means in the clear, with the commission looking into whether he was knowingly unfit to register as a parliamentary candidate because he owned shares in a media firm, which is prohibited under election rules.
Photo: Reuters
Pita has downplayed the issue, arguing the shares in the firm, ITV, have since been transferred and the company was not an active media organization. He faces disqualification, up to 10 years in jail and 20 years banned from politics if found guilty.
“There is sufficient information to suspect that the candidate is unfit or prohibited from seeking public office, according to electoral regulations, to further investigate Pita,” election commission chairman Ittiporn Boonprakong said in a text message.
The opposition Move Forward and Pheu Thai parties thumped conservative opponents allied with the military in a resounding rejection of nearly nine years of government led or backed by the army after its 2014 coup.
They have formed an alliance with six smaller parties, but Pita’s bid to be prime minister and form the government is expected to face resistance in a conservative-leaning Thai Senate that was appointed by the military. A bicameral vote on a prime minister is expected by August, with weeks of uncertainty ahead.
The Move Forward party’s anti-establishment agenda clashes with the interests of a royalist military and old-money business elite that has influenced politics for decades in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy.
The party won huge support among young people with a platform of institutional change, including reducing the army’s political role, undoing monopolies and reviewing a controversial law against insulting the monarchy.
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