Activist Srisuwan Janya yesterday lodged a fresh petition with the Election Commission (EC), asking it to investigate 11 election candidates of the Future Forward Party (FFP) over shareholding violation claims.
In his complaint, Mr Srisuwan said he had checked with the Commerce Ministry's Department of Business Development and found that the 11 FFP candidates were shareholders of media or publishing companies and, as such, were ineligible to contest the March 24 poll.
He cited Section 98(3) of the constitution and Section 42(3) of the organic law governing the election of MPs to support his request for an EC probe into the qualifications of these winning candidates. The two provisions prohibit owners or shareholders of media and/or publishing firms from applying to be MPs.
Named in his petition were seven party-list MP candidates and four constituency candidates.
The party-list candidates are Thanwarin Sukhapisit; Win Suthirachai; Kharom Polpornklang; Woraphob Wiriyaroj; Worakorn Ruetaiwanichkul; Thitikan Thitipruttikul; and Harin Yuwarattanaporn.
The constituency candidates are Nareerat Sukwannarat in Saraburi's Constituency 2; Weerachon Namprakai in Sakon Nakhon's Constituency 4; Piyamet Praneetpolkrang in Nakhon Ratchasima's Constituency 14; and Kalyarat Kittikalayanont in Khon Kaen's Constituency 10.
Mr Srisuwan called on the EC to suspend its endorsement of these candidates and take legal action against them and ask the court to revoke their voting rights for 20 years, as outlined under Section 151 of the law governing the election of MPs.
Under the clause, individuals who are not qualified but still applied to be MPs may face jail terms of up to 10 years and fines of between 20,000 and 200,000 baht, and have their voting rights suspended for 20 years.
Mr Srisuwan said that he will also file similar complaints against several Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) and Pheu Thai candidates on Thursday.
