The senior military officer has been making moves along with his wife, Boonyaporn Natathanapatra, in setting up the “Volunteers for the Power of the Thai Nation” organisation, which has already seen two branches taking root in the Northeast.

As a member of the military organisation set up immediately following the May 2014 coup to work intensively on “reconciliation” on the ground via military-driven activities, it is inevitable that Songklod is now linked to the ruling junta’s apparent bid to set up a new political party ahead of the general election.

Speculation has been swirling as the major-general himself announced in June that he was preparing to set up a new party – Power of the Thai Nation.

The following month, he cemented his thinking on the matter on his wife’s birthday with the establishment of the Volunteers for the Power of the Thai Nation organisation.

After Boonyaporn’s birthday, the first coordinating centre of the organisation was opened in Khon Kaen’s Muang district, a red-shirt hotbed in the Northeast.

At the opening ceremony, it was reported that more than 2,000 guests and volunteers of the organisation had joined the event.

In October, a second centre was opened, this time in Udon Thani, another red-shirt stronghold.

There have also been reports of attempts to open such centres in other parts of the country, including the North, the South and the Central region.

Political observers see this as a political strategy deployed during a period when the ban on political gatherings has not yet been lifted by the junta.

If it were not in effect an “undercover” movement in the form of volunteering, the new effort, which could be linked to the junta, might be attacked as running counter to the ban.

When all is said and done, at present there are no other political activities as stark as this one.

Other parties have reportedly been busy with reregistering their members, as required by the new political party law.