Registration for new political parties began on Friday, with 34 groups turning up to register with the Election Commission.
The atmosphere was lively, with many political groups thronging the registration venue to register with the EC, which began issuing queue tickets at 6am.
The registration opening comes days after Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said a general election would take place no later than February 2019, pushing back the vote by three months
Representatives of the Palang Chart Thai party was the first to register as they stayed overnight at the EC’s headquarters, the registration venue.
Maj Gen Songkrot Thiprat, the party leader, neither admitted nor denied he would support Gen Prayut for the premiership during the election, Thai media reported.
EC member Somchai Srisutthiyakorn said on Friday that about 30 political groups have so far applied to register as political parties.
Under the 2017 Political Parties Act, political groups wanting to register must each find the required number of 500 founding members and a 1-million-baht seed fund.
To hold party meetings, they must seek permission from the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) through the EC, said Mr Somchai.
He suggested that new parties should register this month so they could conduct political activities at the same time as existing parties, which will be required to update their lists of party members in April.
"This is the first time that we have opened registration. There are 34 parties, which is a lot, and it shows people are interested in taking part in politics and want a general election," Jarungvith Phumma, acting secretary-general of the EC, told reporters on Friday.
There are currently 69 registered political parties.
"We are ready to field candidates in the South and in Bangkok ... I cannot tell you more yet but we already have in mind the names of those we want as prime minister candidates," ThaneeThaugsuban, a former Democrat Party lawmaker and brother of Suthep Thuagsuban, who led street protests that culminated in the 2014 military coup, told Reuters on Wednesday.
