The committee’s resolution came despite a planned proposal to the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) that the organic law on political parties should require all parties to re-register with the aim to reorganise “tangled” party affairs.

The resolution also came with several new regulations on party management, requiring for example that party members would donate Bt200 to their parties each year while the government would also provide Bt2 million to each party.

The plan has been opposed by several party members.

Any party not conforming to the rule would automatically have its membership nullified. False confirmations – for instance, if people’s names are submitted without their consent – could also land parties in trouble.

“We don’t want to become culprits, accused of abusing parties,” committee member Sompong Sakawee said, explaining why the NRSA had changed its mind.

“Initially, [with an earlier planned proposal] we wanted parties to be financially supported by people and the government,” he said “But they rejected it. So now it’s their choice.”

Red-shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan yesterday also opposed the re-registration idea, saying that the budgetary sources proposed would be “nothing” compared to parties’ operating costs. Meanwhile, the idea of resetting long-established political parties by making them re-register was discussed by lawmakers over the past few weeks but it might not resolve the country’s endemic corruption problems because it would not address the root cause, academics said.

“Resetting the institutional parties to zero would only cause politicians to disperse like bees flee when their beehive catches fire, moving them to a new haven and to start doing the same things,” said political academic Yutthaporn Issarachai, deputy rector of Sukhothai Thammathirat University.

Yutthaporn’s remark came after a public debate on whether political parties should be made to re-register under a new draft bill. The idea has become controversial since the constitutional draft passed the August 7 referendum, paving the way for further legal enactments relating to politics including those relating to political parties and members of the House of Representatives.

Politicians and political parties have long been blamed for the country’s conflicts and severe corruption, leading to the call for a reset.

The Election Commission recently finished drafting the political party draft bill before submitting it to the CDC for deliberation as required by the new charter. Despite some CDC members rejecting the reset idea, there were lawmakers and reformers in favour of it. Some analysts believe the idea being discussed is the result of the charter’s organic laws being unfinished.

The CDC has pledged to complete the first four bills including those concerning political parties in the next two months. The new charter requires the CDC to complete all 10 organic laws in the next eight months after the charter is promulgated in November, in line with the junta’s road map.

After that, the laws will be forwarded to the National Legislative Assembly for deliberation before being submitted for royal endorsement.

Thammasat University law expert Prinya Thewanarumitkul also voiced concerns over the reset proposal. He said it would not make politicians more responsible because they would simply continue their corrupt activities in another party.

Prinya believes the plan to overhaul political affiliations would not eradicate party financiers’ influence over politicians. He said such influences “principally” bring about deep-rooted corruption.

“Previous corrupt policies largely stemmed from political party sponsorship, under which party financiers financed and exploited the politicians to gain benefits in return,” he added.