Thailand’s Election Commission plans to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate an alleged wrongdoing of a political party for having named Princess Ubolratana Mahidol as its sole candidate for prime minister, an official of the polling agency said on Tuesday.
Several people, including outsiders, will likely sit on the investigating panel, following Monday’s omission of the Princess’s name from a list of Election Commission-verified candidates for prime minister in the March. 24 election.
The Election Commission had excluded Princess Ubolratana, the elder sister of His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn, from the race to power by citing the monarch’s Royal Command, issued on Friday, as ruling that the Princess’s electoral candidacy was “inappropriate,” given her permanent status as a member of the Royal Household, who is constitutionally and traditionally supposed to remain uninvolved and neutral in politics.
Princess Ubolratana said online that she had accepted the controversial nomination merely as a commoner with respect to the constitutional right and freedom to get involved in politics.
Though Princess Ubolratana has relinquished herself of royal titles since 1972, she is invariably regarded as a life-long member of the Royal Household, according to the monarch’s Royal Command.
Meanwhile, Thai Raksa Chart leader Preechaphol Pongpanit declined to comment whether results of the ad hoc committee’s probe might be forwarded to the Constitutional Court which might possibly lead to the dissolution of his party and a ban to all its executive board members from future political affairs.
He reassured that the party’s rank and file will certainly proceed with its electoral campaign for MP seats.
