Wirat Kalayasiri, the Democrat Party’s chief legal official, said the “set to zero” party plan – which could be drafted in the charter’s organic laws by the Constitution Drafting Commission and would require all political parties to re-register – was a move to “test the waters” to support political parties with the backing of the military.

“Those who are involved in [drafting the organic laws] should tread carefully [in terms of how they treat political parties]” he said. “A political party should serve as a gathering of people who share the same ideology and should not include business interests who want to establish a party to protect or amass self-gain, resulting in the country’s demise, or include people who want to overthrow high institutions.”

Democrat deputy spokesman Ramet Ratanachaweng said he supported the proposal that calls for people who violated election laws to face up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a Bt20-million fine but he opposed banning MPs from making donations for weddings, monk ordinations and funerals.

Ramet said he supported the measure to increase penalties for politicians who committed vote buying. “These measures can effectively reduce the problems. It [the get-tough stance] is proposed out of good intentions to ensure politicians win their seats fairly and transparently.”

However, he said the proposal by the National Reform Steering Committee’s political reform committee member Wanchai Sornsiri to ban donations for weddings, monk ordinations and funerals was made because he had never been elected to office. “These are customs and traditions that help connect MPs with constituents … Money is not really the issue,” he said.

“Politically neutral group”

Meanwhile, Democrat Party deputy leader Sathit Pitudecha called on Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to remove bans on political gatherings and meetings. “The prime minister has the power under Article 44 [of the interim charter] to take drastic action against people or parties that instigate disturbances,” he said in support of his argument.

He also urged Prayut to assign a politically neutral group accepted by society to lead national reconciliation. “If the prime minister chairs the reconciliation himself, some political camps may not accept his authority and that could lead to conflicts.

“Reconciliation principles must be internationally accepted and should not serve just to project an image,” Sathit said.

He added the reconciliation process should finish before the general election.