Nikorn Chamnong, the party director, said Chart Thai Pattana was dissatisfied that only 2,500 out of its 24,710 registered members had confirmed their status before the confirmation period ended.

He said the small number of confirmed memberships would adversely affect the party’s primary voting to select its candidates for the general election.

The Political Parties Act requires that parties need at least 7,000 members from all over the country, a minimum 500 from their branches, and at least 120 provincial representatives in the primary voting required by law.

“Chart Thai Pattana has 2,500 confirmed members initially. We need 6,000 more for nationwide primary voting [to achieve party’s target of 8,500]. That’s not easy given the limited time,” Nikorn said.

He added that he expected old Chart Thai Pattana members who had failed to confirm their membership by the April 30 deadline to apply as new members after the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) further relaxes its restriction on political activities.

The veteran politician called on the authorities to review the requirement for primary voting and postpone its enforcement until the next-but-one general election.

The next national poll is expected to be held in February 2019.

He warned that without postponement of the required primary voting, both existing and new political parties “would be in trouble” and that the entire political party system would be affected.

A junta order issued in December allows existing political parties to have their current members confirm their membership in April. Monday was the last day allowed by the order.

Existing parties have complained that one month is too short for the membership confirmation, as the number of members they each have ranges from several thousand to over a million.

Meanwhile, the Chart Pattana Party disclosed that almost one-third of its members had come to confirm their membership as of Monday.

Party leader Wannarat Charnnukul said that 5,583 out of its 18,163 registered members – or 30.7 per cent – had reaffirmed their membership, a number he described as “satisfactory”.

Wannarat said the party would seek more members and the minimum targeted number was 10,000 to facilitate the requirement for primary voting.

He called on the NCPO to lift its ban on political activities to allow parties to find new members and prepare for the next election.