Thai National Assembly passes political parties law

A working session at the NLA of Thailand last November (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Bangkok (VNA) – The National Legislation Assembly (NLA) of Thailand has passed a bill on political parties, which is important for the country’s political progress, particularly when a general election is scheduled to take place in late 2018.

The bill, consisting of 142 articles, was passed with a vote of 180 in favour with issues settled over party funding and nomination of election candidates by political parties.

On party funding, the NLA decided to set the party’s establishment fund at a minimum of one million THB (29,000 USD) with co-founders paying 1,000 – 5,000 TBH each. The membership fee is 100 THB per head.

For the nomination of election candidates, parties are asked to set up a selection committee to choose candidates for the official registration. Each party will make a list of 150 nominees with party leader placed at the No.1 candidates, while the remainder will be placed according to the number of votes received.

The Constitution Drafting Committee and the Election Commission will decide in ten days if they want to seek a joint meeting with the NLA to propose changes to the bill. -VNA