Pai had been jailed for sharing a BBC article deemed an insult to King Rama X. The court in Khon Kaen province handed down a five-year jail sentence but halved it to two years and six months after he confessed.

His prison term was due to end next month but he was given a royal pardon in the occasion of the King’s recent coronation. Ninety-nine other prisoners were released from prison in Khon Kaen on Friday.

As well as family and friends, scores of supporters welcomed Pai in front of the prison on Friday. Among them was newly-elected Future Forward MP Rangsiman Rome who had been an activist in the same pro-democracy network as Pai.

Pai told the press after the release that he was grateful for the King’s kindness and his pardons to prisoners.

Pai said he would continue fighting for human rights and democracy, although he wants to enjoy his freedom with his family first.

WHILE THE pro-junta camp led by Phalang Pracharat Party appears to have gained the upper hand in the latest MP seat distribution, the rival camp retains a glimmer of hope as long as the “swing” parties remain undecided.

The anti-junta bloc now looks short of MPs required to form a government after its seat count fell from 255 to 245 under the Election Commission (EC)’s controversial party-list calculation method. But pro-democracy figures remain optimistic, as they believe not all the seats from the remaining 20 winning parties will necessarily go to Phalang Pracharat.

Pheu Thai Party secretary-general Phumtham Wechayachai yesterday tweeted that the pro-junta camp had only secured 138 seats in the lower house so far against the opposition bloc’s 245 seats.

The undecided faction comprising Democrat, Bhumjaithai, Chartthaipattana and Chartpattana parties now accounted for 116 MPs, he added.

“It’s the Thai people’s duty to press this faction to make a decision,” the anti-junta politician said. “The country is in your hands. Don’t let anyone destroy it.”

The group Phumtham called the undecided faction, however, is viewed as leaning towards the pro-regime camp.

Horse-trading is reportedly taking place with these parties. The Democrats and Bhumjaithai, for instance, are said to have been offered six spots each in the Cabinet.

Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul dismissed the rumours yesterday, writing on Facebook that there had been neither talks on setting up a government nor negotiations over Cabinet seats.

“Bhumjaithai is listening to the voice of the people,” Anutin wrote.

A Democrat Party source also denied having negotiated with the pro-regime bloc, saying talks could be conducted after next Wednesday when the party chooses its new leader.

The identity of the Democrats’ new leader is crucial since rival candidates have different stances on the party’s role in government formation.

Phalang Pracharat leader Uttama Savanayon also admitted yesterday that no agreement had been reached yet over the establishment of the new government. Negotiations were underway, he said.

Though Uttama expressed confidence his block would form the government, he declined to reveal the number of MPs it could assemble amid reports that Democrat and Bhumjaithai had not been satisfied with posts offered.

Sources said it would not be fair for the two parties to get 12 fringe Cabinet seats while Phalang Pracharat, with only 115 MPs, took all the major and economy-related ministries.

Political analyst Anusorn Unno, dean of the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology at Thammasat University, told The Nation yesterday that with the dust still not settled from the election results there were still possibilities for the anti-junta camp to beat its rival to form the government.

“It’s at the negotiation stage right now,” he said. “It is unclear how many or which parties will support the |current regime. They only have three parties now with only some 120 MPs.”

While many doubt that Bhumjaithai would join the anti-junta camp, Anusorn reckons anything is possible since party leader Anutin had said the decision had yet to be made.

Another determining factor – the Democrat Party – is seen as unlikely to join its old foe Pheu Thai in the anti-junta camp. But Anusorn said it won’t be easy for Phalang Pracharat to cut a deal with the Democrats.

“We can see that the Democrats also appear upset with the MP calculation method,” he said. “So, it is unclear whether the party will join Phalang Pracharat.”

With the government formation still shrouded in uncertainty, Anusorn also expressed concern over undemocratic alternatives such as a so-called national unity government or neutral prime minister. “This could lead the [the country] to stagnate again.”

The best way forward, Anusorn suggested, is for the pro-democracy camp to stand by its principles and fight the perceived unfair allocation of MP seats that puts them at a disadvantage.

“They should not let this opportunity slip and allow Phalang Pracharat to form a government in the hope that it will soon collapse and a new election will be held,” Anusorn said. “That would be like letting them violate [democratic] principles from the first.”

The Election Commission (EC) announced yesterday that 26 parties had secured party-list MP seats despite 11 of the parties not winning enough votes to be entitled to the seats and only 16 being eligible.

Yesterday’s EC announcement came with a 14-page explanation of how the controversial calculation method worked.

While critics and parties had suggested a formula that would allow only parties with over 71,000 votes to qualify for seats in the lower house, EC deputy secretary-general Sawang Boonmee admitted that only one formula was proposed to the commissioners – the one rejected by critics and parties.

Sawang refused to explain why the junta-appointed poll authority had chosen this controversial formula, saying only that it followed a stipulation in the organic law.

“That stipulation does not go against the Constitution,” he said. “This is the correct formula. There are no other formulas. So, we only considered this method, unless the Constitutional Court had said otherwise.”

The Constitutional Court ruled yesterday that the contentious stipulation in the MP election organic law did not go against the charter.

Sawan, however, admitted that the number of party-list MPs could change as a Chiang Mai constituency is set to hold a re-run of an election, following the disqualification of a candidate.

If the total number of votes change, the seats allocated would change accordingly, he said, adding that according to the charter these changes could also be introduced a year after the election.

The EC’s decision to allocate seats to 26 parties came amid strong pressure from politicians who have constantly warned the move was unconstitutional and they may pursue legal action against the poll agency.

The anti-junta Pheu Thai Party, which won the highest number of seats from constituencies, is the only party without a party-list MP in the lower house.

The calculation of party-list MPs became a controversial point after parties said different methods might be unconstitutional as what the charter and the organic laws say differ.

However, the Constitutional Court said yesterday that the organic law only offers details of the calculation to make it possible to fill the 500-member House of Representatives and that it was not unconstitutional.

Since the court did not exactly endorse any particular calculation method to allocate seats, its ruling is perceived by some as a greenlight for the EC to go ahead with using the much-debated formula that would give seats to smaller parties even though they were short of the constitutionally-required number of votes.

With the EC’s method, as many as 27 parties will enter Parliament, and 11 of them will have just one seat each. Some of these 11 parties did not win half of the 71,065 votes required – a figure that was obtained from the initial calculation suggested by the Constitution.

This also puts the anti-junta bloc at risk of failing to muster the 250 MPs it requires to legitimately set up a government. According to the EC’s announcement on Tuesday, Pheu Thai will have 136 seats, Future Forward 80, Seri Ruam Thai Party 10 party-list seats, Prachachat 7 and New Economic Party 6 seats.

Meanwhile, the small parties that won one seat each from the party-list tended to favour the pro-junta Phalang Pracharat to help the junta continue in power.

Pheu Thai issued a statement yesterday vowing to take legal action against the EC for its calculation in favour of the pro-junta camp. The party insisted the decision was unconstitutional and hence the agency’s action should be deemed malfeasance.

Earlier, Future Forward Party secretary-general Piyabutr Saengkanokkul also took to Facebook, pressing the EC not to exploit the court verdict as a safety guard to endorse its problematic interpretation of law.

Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit urged all the non-committed parties to uphold democracy and bar the Senate from voting for the PM.

At a press conference yesterday, Thanathorn isolated Phalang Pracharat Party and Action Coalition Thailand Party as pro-junta parties and called on the rest to join forces and stop the attempt by the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order from retaining power.

He called on Democrat Party and Bhumjaithai, seen as determining factors in making or breaking the pro-junta camp, to keep their promise about upholding democracy.

“I’m ready to talk to every party,” Thanathorn said.

Five leaders of the now-defunct yellow-shirt movement, known as the People’s Alliance for Democracy, are scheduled for release from Bangkok Remand Prison tomorrow.

They are Chamlong Srimuang, Pipob Thongchai, Somkiat Pongpaiboon, Somsak Kosaisuk and Suriyasai Katasila.

They were jailed for eight months by the Supreme Court for their involvement in the seizure of Government House in 2008.

They began their prison sentences on February 13 and were due to be released in October but the royal pardon means they will walk free after only three months inside.

Krit Krasaethip, chief of the Bangkok Remand Prison, said that a total of 238 convicts would be freed tomorrow.

Those who have expressed wish to enter the monkhood for the monarch will be the first group to be released, Krit said, adding that the release for all prisoners was expected to finish in the morning.

Their families could wait for them and take them home from outside the front of the prison, he added.

Meanwhile Jatupat Boonpattararak-sa, known as Pai Daodin, who was sentenced to two years and six months in jail on a lese majeste-related charge in a Khon Kaen prison, will also walk free tomorrow, thanks to being granted a royal pardon.

Jatupat will be released 41 days earlier than the scheduled end of his prison term in June. His offence was widely criticised as he was convicted on a lese-majeste charge and violation of the Computer Act after sharing a BBC Thai story about the King on his Facebook page.

His father, Wiboon Boonpattararaksa, wrote on his Facebook page: “This is good news. Pai Daodin will be released on May 10. Please spread the news as many people have asked me about him.”

Khon Kaen governor Somsak said a total of 187 prisoners, both men and women, were being released under the Royal pardon.

Though the stipulation may contain additional clauses that differ from Constitutional law, the clauses were only meant to offer details that made it possible to fill all 150 party-list seats, the Court explained.

The stipulation was thus in line with the supreme law, the Court ruled.

The case had been brought to the Court by the Ombudsman, who was petitioned by Pheu Thai Party politician Ruangkrai Leekitwattana to review the case after debate arose over apparent discrepancies in the MP seat calculation methods mentioned in the MP law and in the Constitution.

The vacant spot is for a constituency in Chiang Mai province that will see a rerun of the election later this month after the winning candidate was disqualified, EC deputy secretary-general Sawang Boonmee said.

However, not all of the 349 MP candidates are in the clear yet, Sawang said, adding that disqualification remained a possibility even after they enter Parliament.

Currently, there are some 40 cases being investigated by the EC, involving electoral fraud, which could lead to disqualification.

If found guilty, the endorsed MPs would lose their seats and face punishment, he added.

Tomorrow, the agency will reveal the 150 successful party-list MP candidates who will make up the rest of the 500-member chamber, he said.

However, the dispute over the method the EC will use to calculate party-list seats is still pending a Constitutional Court ruling.

Sawang said the EC has until tomorrow to announce the election results as mandated by the Constitution.

The EC already has chosen the method it will use to calculate the party-list seats once the Constitutional Court issues a ruling, he said, declining to elaborate.

Meanwhile, the anti-junta Pheu Thai Party has demanded that the poll agency opt for a method that does not allot seats to smaller parties.

Pheu Thai spokesperson Laddawan Wongsriwong submitted another letter to the EC yesterday, pleading for it to respect the Constitution and use a calculation method that is constitutional.

The method the EC is considering will allocate seats to as many as 27 parties, while Pheu Thai maintains that only 16 parties are eligible for seats in Parliament.

Future Forward Party secretary-general Piyabutr Saengkanokkul sent the EC a similar message yesterday, insisting that only parties that have won at least 71,000 votes should be eligible for a party-list MP seat.

Piyabutr, a former law professor, said it would be unconstitutional if the EC decides to interpret the law in such a way that seats get allocated to smaller parties who don’t meet the requirement.

The use of this method would come at the expense of Future Forward, which could lose seven seats or some 600,000 votes, he said, adding that his party would sue the EC for negligence of duty if such a situation arises.

At least 15 members of the coup-installed Cabinet handed in their notices yesterday and their resignations would go into effect today or tomorrow before the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) submits the new Senate list for royal endorsement on Friday.

Those who handed in their resignations yesterday included Justice Minister Prajin Juntong, Deputy PM Chatchai Sarikulya, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Surasak Kanjanarat, Labour Minister Adul Sangsingkeo and Education Minister Teerakiat Chaorensretsilp.

Key NCPO member and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan, however, said he would continue working.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, who is also the NCPO chief, said that yesterday’s Cabinet meeting would be the last as they would have to leave, adding that work at the ministries whose leaders have quit will be handled by their deputies.

The 36-member Cabinet has now been reduced to 17, he said, adding that four ministers had quit previously to lead the pro-junta Phalang Pracharat Party.

Four NCPO members had also quit to join the party, leaving the council with just 11 members, the PM said.

Prayut also added that the Cabinet and the NCPO can still legally meet and the public should not be worried about the country’s administration.

“No matter how many of us are left, we can still run the country. The remaining ministers will take on the work, and the government always has administration plans,” he said.

Some 60 members of the NLA will also leave their office to sit in the upper house.

NLA vice president Peerasak Phochit said yesterday that he had been made a senator along with some 60 of his colleagues, including NLA president Pornpetch Vichitcholchai and vice president Surachai Liangboonlertchai.

Prayut’s brother Preecha Chan-o-cha said yesterday that he had handed in his resignation from the NLA in order to take up his new post as senator.

The remaining ministers in office are likely to hand in their notices today or tomorrow in time for the Senate list to be submitted for royal endorsement on Friday.

The process of selecting senators is opaque and the official list of persons to be named as senators has remained confidential. It has been reported that many of those chosen are close associates of the junta leaders. The 250-member Senate, handpicked by the junta, will play a critical role in underpinning the junta’s power in post-election politics. Not only will they have the power to vote for the new prime minister, they will also have the authority to scrutinise the government and ensure it follows the junta’s 20-year national strategy.

However, Peerasak said he believes politics will continue despite concerns that the junta-appointed Senate will not be able to work with the elected MPs. “The Senate will vote to endorse a prime minister, but the MPs have the right to form a majority first,” Peerasak added.

Meanwhile, NLA president Pornpetch declined to comment, saying everybody should wait for the official announcement in the Royal Gazette once the names are endorsed by the King. He also said that he does not believe there should be any problems for the controversial Senate to collaborate with elected MPs.

Separately, Prayut said at the weekly press briefing that the Senate should not be viewed as an enemy. Instead, he said, he wanted the public to consider what his government has achieved in the past five years and how the new senators will help in continuing this work in the transition period.

Kongkrit Chuesrisakul, a parliamentary candidate of the Prachatham Thai (Thai People Justice) Party, claimed that the party’s leader, Pichet Sathirachawan, was also a board member and a shareholder of seven media companies.

The law bans an election candidate from owning shares in media firms, and also prohibits anyone who was dismissed from a government agency on a corruption-related charge from running.

Kongkrit asked in his motion to the EC that it should investigate the matter and cancel Pichet’s electoral rights if the claims were found to be accurate.

“Pichet was well aware that he was not qualified by law, however he still applied to run in the March 24 national election. Penalties for the offences are a jail term of between one and 10 years and a fine of between Bt20,000 and Bt200,000, as well as revocation of electoral rights for 20 years,” Kongkrit said.

He also claimed that Pichet – Prachatham Thai’s party-list candidate number 1 – had asked the party’s candidates to advance their own money for running their campaigns, with a promise to pay it back.

However, he said, Pichet repaid only the application fee of Bt10,000 to each candidate, while the election expenses of the party’s 20 candidates were estimated to total about Bt150 million.

The candidates had tried unsuccessfully several times to contact Pichet about this, Kongkrit added.

The vacant spot is for a constituency in Chiang Mai province that will see a by-election later this month after the March 24 winning candidate was disqualified, said the agency’s deputy secretary-general, Sawang Boonmee.

However, not all of the 349 candidates to be seated in the House of Representatives are yet fully in the clear, as Sawang said disqualification remained possible even after they had taken office.

Currently, there are some 40 cases being investigated by the EC, involving MP disqualification and electoral fraud.

If found guilty, endorsed MPs could still lose their status and face punishment, the deputy secretary-general stressed.

By Thursday, the agency will also reveal the 150 successful party-list MP candidates to make up the remainder of the 500-member chamber, he said.

However, the question of the method used for the allocation of party-list seats is still pending in the Constitutional Court.

Sawang said the EC had to announce the election results by Thursday, as required by the Constitution.

The electoral agency already has plans for whatever method it might have to use after the Constitutional Court rules on the basis for party-list seat calculation, he said, declining to disclose those plans.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said the outgoing government ministers attended their last Cabinet meeting yesterday, as they would have to leave their seats ahead of being appointed as members of the new Senate.

The list of appointed senators will be submitted for royal endorsement on Friday, according to Wissanu, who is in charge of the government’s legal affairs.

He declined to disclose how many Cabinet members would become senators but said the number was “substantial”. However, he added that more than half of the original Cabinet members would still remain.

Among the Cabinet members expected to be appointed as members of the upcoming Senate are Deputy Prime Minister General Chatchai Sarikulya, Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister ACM Prajin Juntong, Labour Minister Police General Adul Sangsingkeo, Deputy Defence Minister General Chaichan Changmongkol and Natural Resources and Environment Minister General Surasak Karnjanarat.

Meanwhile, more than 60 members of the outgoing NLA, including the assembly’s president, Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, would become senators following their appointments by the ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), its deputy president Peerasak Porchit said on Tuesday.

Pornpetch, Peerasak and the other NLA deputy president Surachai Liengboonlertchai, as well as some 60 other current members of the legislative assembly, have been appointed to the Senate, according to Peerasak.

He said that all of them would tender their resignations by Thursday, in time for the list of appointed senators to be submitted for royal endorsement on Friday.

Another NLA source said that in all, about 90 members of the assembly will be appointed senators.