Eric Loh

Not Boris. Someone worse.

Remembered for being vain, narcissistic, corrupt, vulgar, sex scandals and love for authoritarianism. Remind me of someone.

The smart ones have bailed out like Jim Trusty and John Rowley. They know it is a lost case and worried about getting pay.

The crux of the case against Pita holding media shares is down to the 2020-2021 report to DBD report to DBD which changed the business type to TV media. Previous 2018-2019 financial report submitted to DBD showed iTV as a holding company. 'However in the latest report to DBD in 2023 just 4 days before the election, the report stated that iTV had carried out businesses of 'campaign media and investments". Pita is claiming that there is a conspiracy behind the changes in the reports to DBD to thwart his political ambition. He noticed such suspicious happenings surrounding the iTV shares and he asked his heirs to take over the shares entitled to him. This is serious evidence against him and it's a 50/50 chance that he will lend himself imprisoned or banned from politics. The only saving grace is that his shares are very little and in no way possible for him to play a role in influence PBS. There was precedent in a similar case whereby the Supreme Court ordered the EC to reinstate K Charnchai for holding 200 shares in AIS. The Court ruled that the value of shares were pittance and cant influence AIS.

Will need someone to petition the NACC to investigate the EC. Had precedent in which NACC investigate and found the EC negligence in counting votes from New Zealand.

This link provides some pertaining information of the Election Commission checking the eligibility of party candidates and finalizing the master list for eligible and illegible candidates. Hope this will be useful. https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thai-election-commission-disqualifies-pm-candidate-and-nine-party-list-candidates/

He was vetted twice by the EC for eligibility to run in 2019 & 2023 election.

The EC vetted his eligibility in 2019 and in 2023 elections. He was the MP from 2019-2023 and the EC didn’t find the need to probe his qualification. Now EC want to investigate his eligibility. EC should be investigated for dereliction of duty in their vetting process.

I believed so because the direct command of the military has been taken away from the 3 Ps and also the re-deployment of Bangkok military units. The importance of a Privy Councillor who is no longer around is paramount.

It was reclaiming of power. Relocating the units from Bangkok is intergal in reclaiming power.

PT with BJT, PPRP and DP will never happen. Thaksin may want to come home desperately but will never go that route as it mean upsetting their base and will never get wide support. The MFP and PTP coalition is a better option and give time for PTP to re-brand. Pita has his perils but the party will survive and Sreetha could likely be the PM alternate. However I do feel that Pita will be cleared of his legal issues as the case is weak and it does seem that the military and elites really have no appetite to creat problems in the early stage of his reign.

In the past, the conservative forces can count on their middle class aka yellow shirts to stage demonstrations and creat an excuse for the military to stage a coup on a pretext of maintaining peace and order. This time the middle class will not be counted upon to congregate as they are part of the population against the military.

The current roadblocks by the conservatives to prevent a popular elected pro-democractic leader from attaining his rightful top job do give many pause to ponder that the past cases by post coup judiciaries have elements of political expediency. Don't you share the same thought?

The shares case is very weak and the Constitution Court may not even accept the case. As it stand at this moment, the EC has yet to accept the iTV case against Pita. At worst the EC can disqualify Pita and he can still be eligible for PM. Thanathorn' s case over the nedia shares case found him guilty as outlined by Section 82 of the Constitution and suspended him as MP. However his guilty verdict as regards to his loan to FFP got him banned for 10 years and party dissolution. Pita shares case is unlikely to get him banned like Thanathorn. Disqualification for Pita is not the end of his hope to become the Prime Minister.

That's your typical banal ambiquous reply to most posts.

Each time post coups the military and elites were soundly beatened in subsequent elections creating a loop of political conflicts. Maybe this time things will be different.

He had since backtracked to a possible by-election for disqualified MPs. Even that is balderdash. In any case, another election will have even better outcome for MFP with more sympathetic votes.

Thai PBS owned by the Royal Thai Government or simply the military government of Thailand is making the case for the military against K. Pita. The article is disingenuous with large portion skewed to justify the case. The irony is that Thai PBS bought the media rights from iTV and should know the background but decided not to mention. This more a propaganda piece.

Until the EC certified the election results, congratulating the winner seem premature.

More or less we know the facts of the case and the EC a sock puppet of the regime. The facts are pretty strong that iTC ceased to become a media company in 2007 and Pita had declared his assets and liabilities to the NACC before he was elected as MP in 2019 that was certified by the EC. He had also transferred his shares to his relatives. Pita and his party legal advisers have dealt with it as best as they possibly can. However the EC can find ways to pervert the law. If EC disqualify him as MP, he still can be nominated as PM. It is the media angle that may ban him politically and disqualify him as PM candidate. I believe that the party and their elected MPs will not be affected and will still be the majority in the coalition.

When the EC chairman and 5 commissioners were selected by the junta appointed senates, it is a problem.

Accusing a politician of owning shares in a media company is a convenient way to get rid of any political enemy with little regard to the intention of the law. The law is not an issue as politicians controlling media outlets can manipulate opinion and slander rivals BUT the intent of the law has now been perverted beyond all reasons recently. In the case of Thanatorn, hos shares in V-Luck Media was in the process of closing pending some debt collection. V-Luck Media published lifestyle magazine and inflight magazine for Nok Airline but the EC still find sufficient faults to disqualify him. There was another case before Thanathorn and also involved MFP predecessor party FFP in which K Henlod was disqualified. His shares were in the company involved in engineering but the EC claimed that the business objectives was to operate radio and TV. That was a 360 pervertion of the law. Now this case with Pita shares in iTV which the government had terminated its contract in 2007 suddenly became a problem. As I said the law has been perverted by the powers to go after their enemies.

In the past, political leaders were wealthy businessmen, top bureaucrats and military men. No grassroots leaders. That change after Thaksin and now Pita. Also emergence of real time communication and social media. Will shake up politics for sure.

1992 Black May violent protests, 2008 Red Shirts mowed down by military and even 2014 coups were meet with resistance from citizens. People took to the streets and fought to protest the coups. They were mercilessly confronted by heavily armed military. Not correct to say that civilians will not resist coups.

Agree that the entrenched establishments will always have a big influence on politics. Thaksin tried to muzzle the military by interfering with the appointments and he got the short end of the stick. However I do see some incremental changes that can shake up the entrenched establishments that had influenced politics in the past. Record voters turnout in previous election is a sign that majority want change. The young and middle class voters played a big part in voting for MFP. Last 2 coups happened due to the middle class demonstration. This time the middle class vote out the military and their ally parties especially in Bangkok which is always the epicenter of demonstration and subsequent coups. Without the middle class aka yellow shirts igniting the chaos, there no excuse for the military to stage a coup. Also in the past, charismatic figures from the Dem Party like Suthep lead the protest. Doubt the party will continue that tradition after 2 big election losses. The army have been defanged in terms of direct command and deployment to be effective in staging a coup. The youth demonstration in 2020 was an eye opener for me. Some taboo subjects were the slogans for change. Maybe the establishment under a new regime may be more open to listen with some limits. I certainly look forward to that. Thailand has yet to fully developed its potential with continuous political crisis and I have some optimism that change for the better is on the horizon.