According to the EC secretary-general Jarungvith Phumma, fundraising remained a political activity banned by the NCPO.

“We don’t ban it. It’s just that they have to seek permission to do it,” he said. “The EC will also send letters to all political parties about the rule that [requires that] if they want to do any activities beyond what’s allowed in the latest relaxation, they still have to get the [NCPO’s] permission first.”

The explanation came in response to FWP’s protest on Wednesday that the party had been contacted by the EC to stop fundraising because doing so had violated the political ban.

The party slammed the EC as being the NCPO’s tool as it sought to hinder the anti-coup party. The party challenged the EC to also issue a formal statement about the order so it could sue the agency.

Jarungvith yesterday said the EC had only been following the law. As the registrar, he said he did not want political parties to breach the law [and wanted to ensure] that they all could contest the election.

However, the EC would not issue a formal order as FWP had demanded, he said. It would only send out letters to inform all parties.

The move to hinder FWP’s fundraising also raised the question of whether the pro-junta party Ruam Palang Prachachat Thai may also have breached the ban. Its patriarch, Suthep Thaugsuban, allegedly had called on supporters to donate Bt1 each day to the party.

Suthep yesterday responded to the criticism that it was not really a donation but a membership fee.

What he meant by giving the party Bt1 he said, was that party member should pay Bt365 for the annual membership fee rather than the minimum of Bt50 or Bt100 as required by the law.

Meanwhile, Future Forward said that after the EC’s treatment over the fundraising, and its leaders’ call for people to become permanent members and pay the fee to help the party financially, the party saw an increase in its permanent members to more than 200.

Since opening its application for membership last weekend, its members now numbered around 1,109, according to FWP.

He said that the EC would request the additional budget at his suggestion after the agency informed him that the funds allocated earlier were insufficient.

“The EC mentioned that it needed a larger budget. It has enough funds for the selection of senators,” said Wissanu, who is in charge of the government’s legal affairs.

The agency had allocated some Bt4 billion for holding the election of MPs but it would have additional expenditures under the new electoral law, EC secretary-general Jarungvith Phumma said on Thursday.

He explained that under the new law, the EC would need to pay rewards to informers on electoral fraud and rent billboards for campaign posters.

The EC would make its formal request for the additional budget to the Cabinet “very soon”, Jarungvith said.

He said the agency had earlier cut down its requested budget from the original amount of over Bt5 billion to Bt4 billion.

“The budget allocated for holding the selection of senators is enough. We don’t ask for more,” he said.

In addition to holding the election of MPs, the agency is also responsible for the selection of 200 senatorial candidates who are individual applicants and nominations by organisations from occupational groups.

The junta – National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) – is empowered to choose 50 out of the 200 candidates, to be appointed to the 250-member Senate.

Of the remaining 200 senators, 194 will be appointed by the NCPO and six others are ex-armed forces and police.

Jarungvith said on Thursday he expected the decree on senatorial election to be issued in early November.

Organisations will be allowed to nominate senatorial candidates from October 15 to 24, and applications will be opened for individuals between November 26 and 30, he said.

The selection of senators will be held on December 16 at the district level, on December 22 at the provincial level and on December 27 at the national level, according to Jarungvith.

Applicants and nominees are required to vote among people in their occupational groups and only 200 will be eligible for the final selection by the NCPO.

The EC plans to submit a shortlist of 200 senatorial candidates to the NCPO within January 22, according to election commissioner Thawatchai Terdpaothai.

Jarungvith said the election commissioners have instructed the EC to complete the selection of senators as soon as possible so that they would then focus on holding the general election.

The next election has been tentatively scheduled for February 24.

Panthongtae Shinawatra was brought to the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases by public prosecutors.

He was indicted for obtaining a cheque for Bt10 million that was part of Bt10 billion in loans that the property group, Krisada Mahanakorn, had got dishonestly from the state-run bank at a time when his father was serving as prime minister.

The court released Panthongtae on a bail of Bt1 million yesterday on condition that he would not leave the country without court permission.

Also, the court scheduled a hearing on November 5 for the defendant to declare formally whether he admitted to or denied the charge against him.

Panthongtae, 38, who is Thaksin’s eldest child, had earlier suggested in his Facebook post that the money-laundering case against him seemed to be politically motivated.

“Pin him down with some criminal case so that he would not be a nuisance in the run-up to the election. That’s my last roar before I meet public prosecutors to hear their decision on indictment,” Panthongtae posted on Tuesday.

“Just in your dreams, Uncle Moody,” he added, seemingly referring to someone in the ruling junta.

Panthongtae also said that he felt he did not get fair treatment from authorities involved in the case, namely the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), the Anti-Money Laundering Office and public prosecutors.

He added that like him, more than 100 other people had also obtained cheques from the same source but they were spared legal action.

Panthongtae appeared at the Office of the Attorney-General in the morning to meet with public prosecutors and later went to the court in the afternoon after being indicted.

He was accompanied by his sisters Pinthongta Kunakornwong and Paethongtarn Shinawatra, as well as their mother Khunying Pojaman na Pombejra.

Also present to offer Panthongtae moral support were leading politicians from the Pheu Thai Party, including Phumtham Wechayachai, Chusak Sirinil, Noppadon Patama and Pichai Naripthaphan.

“I have no worries. I am still fine,” Panthongtae told reporters. His sisters added that he was “in good spirits”.

In her Instagram message, Paethongtarn said yesterday: “Thaksin’s children often get things worse than others. But you know what, because Thaksin’s flesh and blood runs in us, we will stay strong. Thank you for all the encouragement for [Panthongtae] and our family.”

Co-defendants in the case – Kanchanapa Honghern, the former secretary of Panthongtae’s mother, and her husband Wanchai – who had received cheques for Bt26 million in connection with the loan scandal, did not show up yesterday. Public prosecutors summoned them to hear their indictment order on October 18.

Tarum Chalichandra, a spokesman for the Office of Attorney-General, told a press conference yesterday that public prosecutors had received an investigation report from the DSI regarding 159 people accused of colluding in money laundering, in connection with the loan scandal.

Public prosecutors are studying the investigation report and will inform the public later when they had a decision whether to indict the accused, Prayut Phetkhun, another spokesman for the agency, said at the press conference.

Between 2003 and 2004, Krungthai Bank executives dishonestly approved loans of Bt10.4 billion to Krisada Mahanakorn and its affiliates despite the company’s poor credit rating. The three affiliates involved were later declared bankrupt by a court.

In 2015, the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders sentenced then-senior executives of Krungthai Bank, Krisada Mahanakorn’s top executive Wichai Krisadatanon and other company executives to lengthy jail terms for their involvement in the loan scandal.

Thaksin was a co-defendant in the case. But he has lived in exile overseas since 2008 after fleeing the country shortly before the Supreme Court’s political-cases division sentenced him to two years in jail for abuse of power.

In September, public prosecutors sued Wichai and five others for money laundering.

On Tuesday, Panthongtae said in his Facebook post that he had learned that people in the government were happy after he flew to Hong Kong over the weekend to meet his father. “They said it would be a relief for them in the next election as all in this family would just flee the country,” he said.

In addition to Panthongtae, many Pheu Thai politicians also flew to Hong Kong to meet with Thaksin, who is referred to as “Big Boss” by many party figures.

Regarding Thaksin’s meeting with Pheu Thai politicians, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday said it was the Election Commission’s duty to look into the matter and determine whether that was an act against the relevant law.

“I cannot say who is right or wrong here. It’s more about whether or not it’s appropriate,” General Prayut said. “They have the right to do it but the EC will decide whether it’s legal.”

The Political Party Act prohibits a party from allowing an outsider to influence its internal affairs. And the violating party risks being disbanded if found guilty.

The red-shirt leader admitted talking in prison to his former political adversary about politics and how to resolve the conflict plaguing the country. He, however, denied discussing with Sondhi or Buddha Issara about forming a political party.

He was responding to news reports that Pheu Chart Party would be formed as a collaboration between red- and yellow-shirt leaders to find a way out of the long-running political conflict.

Jatuporn reiterated it was false news, adding that Sondhi was still in prison and would not be out for another 20 years unless he received a royal pardon. If they were to form a party after his release, Sondhi would be around 100 years old by then, he said.

Regarding the establishment of Pheu Chart, the red-shirt leader said the UDD had no intention of forming a political party.

Pheu Chart is an old political party formed in 2013, he said. However, he was actually serving a political ban so he could not possibly have any role in the party, Jatuporn said.

Pheu Chart is believed to be among smaller parties formed to help Pheu Thai Party win extra seats in the Lower House, sufficient to have a majority and form a government.

Jatuporn said it was designed in the Constitution that in order to win the election, a group should be split into different parties.

He said the conservative-leaning side had split into five different parties: Palang Pracharat, Action Coalition for Thailand (ACT) Party, Palang Tham Mai Party, Democrat, and People’s Reform Party.

The ACT Party, backed by People’s Democratic Reform Committee leader Suthep Thaugsuban, will play a role in the Parliament so there wouldn’t be a balance if the UDD didn’t do the same thing, Jatuporn said.

He admitted that Pheu Chart was reserved for those who had no place in Pheu Thai.

But this did not mean that the pro-Shinawatra camp was divided, he said, stressing that only by splitting could they help each other win.

Responding to concerns that Pheu Chart would dip into Pheu Thai’s voter base, Jatuporn said it was up to the voters to decide. The two parties would work separately, he added.

Pheu Chart will hold an assembly this weekend to revise its charter. The new executives and leader would be chosen next month, according to Jatuporn. As political parties try to find a way around the single-ballot system to gain majority seats in the Lower House by creating allied parties, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday conceded that they could do so because it was not against the law.

Government Spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said that the list of all Senate candidates, except the six who would be chosen ex-officio, should be presented to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to choose from by February 9, 15 days before the MP election takes place on February 24.

The NCPO would have 60 days to deliberate on the candidates before making the final decision, he said.

Besides military top brass taking Senate seats ex-officio, 244 others would come from two sources during the first five years, Sansern explained.

He said 50 senators would come from elections at three levels – district, provincial and national. The Election Commission (EC) would present the names of 200 finalists for the NCPO to choose from. Besides the 50 successful candidates, 50 others would be selected as a reserve in case of an emergency, according to the spokesman.

The EC had said it would nominate the candidates by January 2 although the deadline was set for February, Sansern said.

A junta-appointed selection committee would select the other 194 senators by February 9, he added.

The NCPO would complete the selection process in April, the spokesman said.

The Bt6.8 million deal was one of several GT200 sales involving a slew of state agencies and various distributors.

The armed forces insisted on the device’s efficacy even after it was proven in overseas tests to be useless in detecting anything.

Suttiwat was found guilty in a separate case last month involving the Royal Aide-de-Camp Department and sentenced to nine years in prison. The department had bought Bt9 million worth of GT200s and related supplies in 2010.

He and three other defendants in the latest case denied wrongdoing, but the judge found Suttiwat guilty and handed him another nine years in jail while ordering the firm to pay a Bt18,000 fine.

Two other defendants, both employees of Avia Satcom, were acquitted.

The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) will first appoint 50 of 250 senators, according to Wissanu. This group will come from a list of 200 senatorial candidates who are elected by fellow applicants from 10 occupational groups.

The next general election has been tentatively scheduled for February 24.

Under the current Constitution, effective since April last year, the NCPO is empowered to appoint all 250 senators who will be in office for five years.

Out of 250, six will be ex-officio members, 50 selected from 200 elected applicants and 194 chosen from a list of “people suitable to become senators” submitted by a selection committee. The six ex-officio senators are the commanders-in-chief of the three Armed Forces, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the national police chief and the Defence Ministry permanent secretary.

The Election Commission (EC) is accepting applications from individuals and nominations by eligible organisations from all over the country. Applications will be accepted until December 16.

The EC offered to make the list of 200 elected senatorial candidates ready by February although the agency could submit the list as late as February 9, which is 15 days before the election, Wissanu said yesterday. He expected the selection committee to be appointed by the NCPO next January and to submit their list of 400 senatorial candidates by February 9.

Wissanu said the selection committee was likely to wait until the first 50 senators were appointed before selecting the 400 candidates. The panel would nominate people from occupations that were not among the first 50, he explained. “The NCPO has almost a month to choose 194 [from the 400]. The law says the appointment of senators will be announced within three days of the announcement of the general election,” said Wissanu, who is in charge of the government’s legal affairs.

DESPITE the junta’s promise of a poll less than six months from now, the atmosphere of distrust remains, with pro-democracy movements yesterday launching a new election watchdog, “Free Fair & Fruition Election” (FFFE), to monitor the first election organised by the coup-installed regime.

The group said the election, currently set for February, could offer hope to unravel past conflicts and transition the country back to normal. But they remain concerned that the poll might not be free and fair, according to the watchdog leader, Anusorn Unno, a professor from Thammasat University.

To ensure the election is free and fair, FFFE demanded that the ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) repeal all its announcements and orders that currently obstruct political activities related to the election as well as to media freedom.

The group also called on the four incumbent ministers who had joined the Palang Pracharat Party to step down from power to avoid abuse of power in favour of that party while its rivals remain restricted by the political ban. The group expressed concern that the party might be misusing taxpayers’ money to champion its personal popularity ahead of the election.

FFFE is a collaboration of more than 10 pro-democracy networks, including the Democracy Restoration Group, Start Up People and Federation of Patani Students and Youth. It is led by prominent pro-democracy activists like Nuttaa Mahattana, Sirawith Seritiwat, Chonthicha Jaengrew and Tanawat Wongchai.

These networks and individuals have taken different forms in the past four years to counter the coup and its regime while calling for the return of democracy. Many of them have suffered different forms of intimidation, including home visits by the military and lawsuits as a result of their opposition to the junta.

In addition to plans to organise political public seminars, Anusorn said FFFE would also collaborate with the Asian Network for Free Elections to observe the election.

“We’re still concerned that rampant corruption might occur in the upcoming election if some groups aren’t confident they’ll win,” he said. “So, we’ll also take on the role of scrutinise the voting, initially relying on our student networks.”

FFFE coordinator Chonthicha urged all sectors to keep an eye on the voting process. Because the NCPO retains absolute power, groups that support them could enjoy privileges not available to other parties, she said.

The voting next year should be meaningful to the people, she said. Hence, all sectors should be allowed to raise issues as well as solutions openly, and political parties should be allowed to discuss issues with the public without any intimidation by the state, Chonthicha added. Other pro-democracy groups in the FFFE, including iLaw and Student Union of Thailand, took much the same position, emphasising the importance of the NCPO giving up its absolute power under Article 44 and lifting bans that were a hindrance to the rights and freedoms of the people.

Meanwhile, Palang Pracharat Party – with incumbent ministers Utama Sawanayon and Sonthirat Sontijirawong as core leaders – remained active in meeting with voters.

Utama and Sonthirat will next Monday meet with some 100 voters from various sectors to listen to their demands and reflections on different issues, according to the party’s executive Chuan Chujan.

Although political campaigning remained prohibited, Chuan said similar events would be held weekly or at least monthly during the lead-up to the election. Uttama, Sonthirat, Konsak Pootrakul, and Suwit Mesinsee have defended their decision to join the party and stated they would not step down from their current position despite the controversy.

Incumbent Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, former party MP Warong Dechgitvigrom and former deputy leader Alongkorn Ponlaboot applied yesterday to take part in the contest at the party’s headquarters.

Abhisit and Alongkorn made it clear that if they won the contest, they would not support an outsider prime minister who had not been nominated by any political party. However, Warong said he would work with anyone who is against corruption and would not care about the “rhetoric” about dictatorship versus democracy.

“Corruption is an obstacle to the country’s development. Our principle is to suppress corruption. So we can work with whoever shares this principle,” he told Kom Chad Luek Online, The Nation’s sister media outlet.

“We don’t look at the political rhetoric as to who is a dictator and who is democratic. There’s a lot of fake democracy. Some parties claim to be democratic but their leader are not elected democratically,” he added.

Warong was responding to a question about whether he would back General Prayut Chan-o-cha to return as prime minister after the election.

In response to the same question, Alongkorn said he would back General Prayut only if he was a prime ministerial candidate nominated by a political party contesting the election. “I disagree with an outsider prime minister, whoever he is. For the sake of legitimacy, the prime minister must be a party candidate,” he added. Under the current Constitution, each party is required to nominate no more than three PM candidates. An outsider may become prime minister if MPs fail to reach agreement, thus triggering a second round of voting that would include senators, many of whom will be appointed by the junta.

Alongkorn, formerly a deputy Democrat leader, became a member of the National Reform Assembly after the 2014 military coup. He is now deputy president of the junta-appointed National Reform Steering Council.

Abhisit had earlier maintained that he would not support an outsider prime minister.

The three competitors for the Democrat leader’s seat gathered at the party’s HQ yesterday. They were accompanied by supporters and staff members. During the drawing of lots for the candidacy numbers, Alongkorn offered to get No 3 and so only the two others drew lots. Abhisit got No 1 and Warong No 2.

As a sign of goodwill, Abhisit and Warong also shared some of their former-MP supporters with Alongkorn, who had a paperwork problem regarding his list of required backers.

Jurin Laksanawisit, deputy Democrat leader acting as the caretaker leader, was in charge of the application process at the party HQ yesterday. Applications closed at 4.30pm yesterday.

Jurin said that the contestants would send their representatives to join the working group charged with sounding out party members over who should become the next Democrat leader.

Three groups of Democrat members would be allowed to vote: 80,000-plus current members who recently confirmed their membership, new members who apply within October 15, and some 2.5 million former members who had failed to confirm their membership within the deadline imposed by the junta.

The sounding out would be held from November 1 to 5 and the working group would report the result to the party’s executive board, said Jurin. A party general assembly will convene on November 11, to select the new leader and other executive members.

Even if the allied parties had the same political roots, they still had different leaders and policies and hence would be considered different entities, according to deputy PM Wissanu, in charge of the government’s legal affairs.

“There’s nothing illegal about it,” he said. “If they have the capital and the capability, they can form more parties. It’s nothing strange. There have always been cases like that. It’s just that we never felt it was this obvious.”

Wissanu went on to say the move was clearly to collect as many votes as possible, but if they saw an opportunity to do so they were free to pursue it.

His comments came after the emergence of two political parties – Pheu Tham and Pheu Chart – who are believed to be allies of Pheu Thai. It has been said that these parties were created specifically to help Pheu Thai gain party-list MP seats.

The tactic of chasing party-list MP seats follows the introduction of a new election system – Mixed Members Apportionment (MMA) – in the new Constitution.

There is speculation that bigger parties such as Pheu Thai and Democrat might suffer a loss of MPs in the new system, while medium-sized parties could see a rise in their number of party-list members.

Under the new system, all votes will be counted when the MP seats are allocated to each party. If a party already has a number of constituency MPs, it is likely that it would not have the enough quota to also seat its list MPs.

One initial calculation has suggested that it will take about 70,000 votes to secure each seat.

Influenced by the MMA system, it is said that Pheu Thai might focus on winning constituencies, while its allies Pheu Tham and Pheu Chart would chase party-list MPs on their behalf.

Stithorn Thananitichot, an expert from King Prajadhipok’s Institute, explained that this model is possible because Pheu Thai is the only party that is likely to win a large number of constituencies.

Pheu Thai could forget about the number 70,000 votes to get a seat, he said, and simply focus on winning constituencies which actually only requires some 51,000 votes to win the seat, not 70,000. This would equate to the minimum number of votes achieving the greatest benefit, Stithorn explained.

“After all, it is one seat, all the same,” he said. “Then, Pheu Thai could give those 20,000 others to its allies in order to get the list MPs.”

He said he was basing his numbers on the statistics for the 2010 election, when Pheu Thai had 14 million votes and won 204 constituencies.

“With the single-ballot system, 14 million votes mean Pheu Thai could get 200 seats but Pheu Thai has the ability to win 200 constituencies already, according to previous statistics,” Stithorn explained.

“So, if on average it requires only 51,000 [votes] to win a constituency, then 200 seats would only require 10 million votes. It has four million votes that could be distributed to its allies that otherwise would be just a waste if Pheu Thai kept them.”

Stithorn also expected big-name politicians to stay with Pheu That as a constituency candidate rather than migrating to its allied parties since the party was already giving up on the list MPs to its allies. Although it might seem like a downgrade, he said being a constituency MP was still better than not being an MP at all.