The Action Coalition for Thailand (ACT) Party stands ready to join a coalition of parties that aims to control the next government and has pledged to undertake comprehensive reforms of the country, ACT co-founder Suthep Thaugsuban said yesterday.
He was responding to a question on whether the ACT was prepared to team up with the pro-regime Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) to win the election if given the chance.
Mr Suthep has been unwavering in his support for the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). He has also made it known he believes Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is well-suited to return as prime minister.
He said the ACT would ally itself with any party that has shown a genuine commitment to implement national reforms pushed by the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) protest movement, which he led between late 2013 and early 2014.
The PDRC staged a months-long protest against the Pheu Thai Party-led administration, which was toppled by the NCPO in the coup in May 2014.
Mr Suthep was speaking during a an event to recruit new party members and announce the party's election platforms in Chiang Mai yesterday.
He said the ACT was keen to address economic problems and lift people's standard of living.
Bread-and-butter issues are critical, he said, adding that voters he met in Chiang Mai told him they did not want the country to regress into civil unrest driven by political and social divisions that gripped it in the past.
Mr Suthep -- a former Democrat Party secretary-general who was re-elected as an MP for Surat Thani many times from April 1979 to December 2013 -- retains a strong support base in the southern province.
However, he insisted yesterday he was no stranger to the North, having graduated from Chiang Mai University. Some senior ACT members were also born and raised in the northern provinces.
Meanwhile, the PPRP says it can win more than 60 seats in the Northeast, a region with close to 120 parliamentary seats up for grabs.
Chamlong Krudkhunthod, a PPRP core leader, said the target was attainable and the party could capture at least 10 seats in Nakhon Ratchasima.
