PARTY DISSOLUTION People Power, Chart Thai and Matchima Thipataya parties disbanded

The Constitution Court on Tuesday ruled to disband three coalition parties, People Power, Chart Thai and Matchima Thipataya, and banned the three's party executives from electoral process for five years. The high court held the three parties for accountability on electoral fraud involving party executives, Yongyuth Tiyapairat of People Power, Monthien Songpracha of Chart Thai and Sunthorn Wilawan of Matchima Thipataya.In the fraud case linked to People Power Party, the high court cited the Yongyuth conviction by the Supreme Court as the ground to penalise the ruling party.For cases linked to Chart Thai and Matchima Thipataya, it invoked the rulings by the Election Commission as the basis to punish the two parties. The nine presiding judges reached unanimous decisions against People Power and Matchima Thipataya parties. And they formed the eight-to-one decision to punish Chart Thai.The high court opined that the punishment by disbandment was mandatory as sanctioned by Article 237 of the Constitution and that it had no leeway to selectively punish the party executives on the individual basis.

By:The Nation