The Supreme Court's Election Cases Division is standing by a decision by the Nakhon Ratchasima provincial election office to disqualify a candidate from the Prachachart Party from the March 24 polls.
In a ruling on Thursday, the court found Jiradech Thongyoi, who applied to run in Constituency 12 under the Prachachart Party banner, did not meet the 90-day political party membership requirement, meaning he is not eligible to run for a House seat.
This is the court's first ruling over the contested disqualification of an election candidate.
Dozens of MP candidates who were earlier disqualified from the March 24 race have lodged appeals with the court's special division for election cases.
The provincial Election Commission office rejected Mr Jiradech's candidacy on the basis that he had not been aligned with any party long enough and thus broke the rules laid out in the Political Parties Act.
According to the provincial election office, he became a member of the party on Nov 26, based on a letter of confirmation issued by the party's leader. However, his membership of the Puea Pandin Party was not terminated until Dec 6.
That means Mr Jiradech belonged to two parties from Nov 26-Dec 6, a practice forbidden by the act.
Based on Section 26 of that same act, the election registrar must now inform both parties to revoke his membership.
The election office said Mr Jiradech's membership of both parties has now been terminated.
