“[Choosing] between my own future and the country’s future, I decided to wash my hands of politics so I can work to steer national reform until its final phase,” the veteran politician tweeted yesterday.

The new charter states that members of the NRSA and the National Legislative Assembly should resign their membership within 90 day after the Constitution was promulgated or they would not be eligible to run in the next election.

He wrote on his Twitter account that he had been asked often whether or not he would return to the Democrat Party or form a new party, or whether he would resign to run in an election.

He said that he had tied his future with the country since he proposed a reform plan with the Democrat party in 2013.

In the past two years, the 11 points of reform had made good progress, Alongkorn said. Also, as the new Constitution had laid out steps to be taken on national reform, the politician-turned-reformer said it made reform even more important than his own future.

He said in steering the reform, he must remain non-partisan and not side with any faction.

In addition, the former Democrat MP said that he had promised the people in his home province and his stronghold Petchaburi that the Democrat Party would be his only affiliation, implying he would not form a new party.

Alongkorn quit the Democrat Party in 2013 a year ahead of the coup. He said that the party needed reform or it would not win an election and because he did not see eye to eye with other members, he left the party.

He was seated in both the junta-appointed reform assemblies – the defunct National Reform Council and the soon to be defunct NRSA.