Looming court battle on party dissolution involving Democrats

Friday, December 18, 2009

By The Nation- The party dissolution case involving the Democrats will rest with the final decision by Suchart Sukhagganond, the registrar of political parties and concurrently the Election Commission chairman, EC member Sodsri Sattayatham said on Friday.


The Democrat Party stands accused of involving in alleged irregularities stemming from the Bt258 million campaign contributions.

On its Thursday's meeting to debate the case, the EC failed to form a consensus on the case, hence deciding to entrust Suchart to have the final say.

Of the five EC members, Sodsri, Prapun Naigowit and Somchai Juengprasert voted in favour of referring the case to Suchart instead of ruling whether to dissolve the main coalition party.

Visuth Pothithaen cast a lone vote for punishment by party dissolution. And Suchart, in his capacity as EC chairman, opposed the party dissolution.

In his capacity as the political parties registrar, Suchart is obligated to petition the Constitutin Court for a judicial review. Following Suchart's review, the case is expected to be forwarded for the Office of the Attorney General to launch the court battle.

Reacting to the looming court battle, Democrat Party secretary general Suthep Thuagsuban said he was worrying about the fate of his main coalition party.

Suthep said in his opinion, the Demorats were not at risk to see their party dissolved since the alleged wrongdoing involved individual members and not the party.