EC ready for pre-registration of new parties starting today

By KAS CHANWANPEN 
THE NATION

 

 

Election Commission's caretaker secretary-general Pol Colonel Jarungwit Phumma

 

AFTER four years without elections or political party activities, the Election Commission (EC) is now ready to resume its responsibilities, beginning with the pre-registration of new political parties today.
 

This will be the first major political duty the EC will be discharging since the referendum on the draft constitution in August 2016.

The EC’s caretaker secretary-general, Pol Colonel Jarungwit Phumma, who also serves as the political party registrar, said he looked forward to welcoming founders of all new parties to the pre-registration starting at 7.30am today until the end of the month.

 

Jarungwit said he believed all aspiring parties would be able to complete all the procedures in time, especially after Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha’s latest announcement that the next election would take place “no later than” February next year. 

 

 

The pre-registration allows a group of 15 individuals to seek registration as a new political party. A number of EC officials have been deployed to facilitate the process at the agency’s head office, he said.

 

On Wednesday, the last working day before the pre-registration, officials at the EC headquarters worked on arranging a designated area to welcome founders of new parties today.

 

The pre-registration process abides by a controversial junta order issued in December that enables political parties to complete their administrative tasks and paperwork, aligned with the new organic law on political parties, while maintaining the junta ban on other political activities deemed a threat to peace and order.

At this stage, new parties are required to reserve the party name, logo and abbreviation, as well as submit relevant documents, Jarungwit said. 

 

“Then, the EC will examine the qualifications of the 15 founding members and check if the party name, both in Thai and English, as well as the abbreviation, coincide with that of any existing parties,” he said. “If everything is okay, we will issue the acceptance letter to the party so it can proceed to the next steps.”

 

Unless it fails to gather at least 500 members and raise a minimum of Bt1 million as capital within 180 days of receiving the acceptance letter, a group can register with the EC as a political party, the caretaker secretary-general said. While all these activities may seem complicated, Jarungwit said the EC had no concerns. 

 

He added that there was a clear procedure for new parties to begin the pre-registration today while existing parties will start from next month to deal with paperwork such as clearing up their registration records. 

 

Both the EC and political parties were involved in writing all these rules and there were not any major changes, only the qualifications were more stringent, he said.

 

“And we have already scheduled a meeting later this month, which we will prep them [existing political parties] with what they have to do.

 

They have enough time to do it. There shouldn’t be any problem,” he said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30339981

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-03-02

16 minutes ago, webfact said:

They have enough time to do it. There shouldn’t be any problem,” he said.

Yep, time is just an illusion that lives in the eyes of the beholder. As we all know, time is a very sensitive matter for the ruling government. Everyone is soon to be on the watch-list!

All parties  except the Junta's must ride to govt on a 3  legged blind  Unicorn, hopefully  this  will reduce the opposition parties to zero and they can declare themselves the democratically appointed  winners!!

Seems  fair to me, but then I'm not Thai, thankfully.

Edited March 1, 20188 yr by gunderhill

1 hour ago, webfact said:

AFTER four years without elections or political party activities, the Election Commission (EC) is now ready to resume its responsibilities, beginning with the pre-registration of new political parties today.

 

Hmmm....

 

Four years without any responsibilities. Four years without an election and the last one they tried to run failed.

 

I wonder how much salary these people have been paid for nothing? And how many perks have they taken advantage of? And how many paid holidays? And how many expense account meals? And how many car trips? And how many "study tours"? And how much international travel?

 

Wouldn't you like to know?

 

They have not proven to be ready or c.ompetent in the recent past and it does not appear anything has changed.

1 hour ago, Samui Bodoh said:

 

Hmmm....

 

Four years without any responsibilities. Four years without an election and the last one they tried to run failed.

 

I wonder how much salary these people have been paid for nothing? And how many perks have they taken advantage of? And how many paid holidays? And how many expense account meals? And how many car trips? And how many "study tours"? And how much international travel?

 

Wouldn't you like to know?

 

I am sure that they have all been busy in the meantime, no doubt a wide variety of entrepreneurial activities to maintain an (informal) income stream commensurate with their standing, if not with their official salaries...

Edited March 1, 20188 yr by JAG

4 hours ago, webfact said:

AFTER four years without elections or political party activities, the Election Commission (EC) is now ready to resume its responsibilities, beginning with the pre-registration of new political parties today.

Resume - in the broadest sense of the word !

Is now the political assembly ban for more than 5 people lifted?

What's Thai for raving loony,? There would be quite a number of potential candidates to head that party should it be formed, lol....

I guess we all know the names of the dynamic duo in the pole position at the register counter.

Don't forget to apply for citizenship before you you join 'em S100.

1 hour ago, tomacht8 said:

Is now the political assembly ban for more than 5 people lifted?

No each party can only have  4 members and must have that Unicorn, except  the Juntas.

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Both the EC and political parties were involved in writing all these rules and there were not any major changes

That's a complete misrepresentation.

Political parties were "listened to" but they had no role in drafting or writing anything.

The EC did only what CDC allowed and the CDC is very, very aligned with Prayut's agenda.

13 hours ago, webfact said:

The pre-registration process abides by a controversial junta order issued in December that enables political parties to complete their administrative tasks and paperwork, aligned with the new organic law on political parties, while maintaining the junta ban on other political activities deemed a threat to peace and order.

"Controversial" must be the Thai word for poorly thought and unethical. 

 

The junta is now the supreme threat to peace, order, innovation, opportunity and prosperity.  Unlike real fruitcake, the fruitcakes running the country have gone way over their expiry date. 

Edited March 2, 20188 yr by yellowboat