BANGKOK, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Constitutional Court on Wednesday accepted a petition seeking the dissolution of a brand-new Future Forward Party due to a sum of money publicly declared by the party as a "loan" but apparently interpreted by its accusers as an illegal "donation".
The Constitutional Court accepted the petition lodged by the Election Commission in pursuit of the court's possible verdict which might lead to the sought-after disbandment of the opposition party, given the allegedly illegal "donation" amounting to 191 million baht (about 6.32 million U.S. dollars) provided to it by party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit.
No political party is allowed to obtain more than 10 million baht (about 331,000 U.S. dollars) in cash donation from any individual, according to the political party law.
Thanathorn and his party have earlier insisted the money was merely a "loan" provided to finance their party's electoral campaigns for the March election. Five out of the seven members of the Election Commission concluded that Thanathorn would not anticipate a repayment of the loan money from his own party in the first place, thus dismissing the claims that it was just a "loan".
The members of the Election Commission apparently believed the Future Forward Party leader had merely intended to provide campaign finance for his own party but that sum of money was far beyond the 10-million-baht limit by law.
Without a conventional canvasser to help with its first-ever electoral campaigns or a former MP to seek re-election under its tickets, Thanathorn's party came off as the third largest one winning 80 MP seats in the nationwide race to parliament.
Nevertheless, Thanathorn's party is given a 15-day time as of the date on which a copy of the Election Commission petition is delivered to the party headquarters in order to defend itself in writing to the Constitutional Court.
Meanwhile, the court is scheduled for January 21 to rule whether the same opposition party may have designed to undermine the democratic rule with the monarch as the head of state or not.
Last month, the Constitutional Court judged Thanathorn guilty of holding shares of a little-known media firm after he applied to run for MP heading his party's running mates on party list mode earlier this year, thus depriving him of his MP status. No electoral candidates are legally allowed to hold shares of any media firm.
