Pheu Thai complains to EC about Newin

Chiang Mai MP Surapong Towijakchaikul said photos of Newin hugging Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva in the media could be used as proof of unlawful involvement by Newin in helping to form a government.

Executives of political parties dissolved by the courts for electoral violations have been banned from politics for five years and stripped of voting rights for the same period. They are prohibited from being involved in the founding of a political party or being a party executive.

Moreover, Surapong asked the EC to investigate former Chart Thai Party adviser Sanan Kachornprasart's announcement that the Democrats would not field candidates to compete with former government coalition parties' in upcoming by-elections - to determine if that was illegal lobbying.

Surapong said former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's phone-in to address supporters this tomorrow would be legal as he was not forming a government like the Democrats and Newin.

But anyone could file a lawsuit if they could prove that banned executives from the disbanded Thai Rak Thai Party intervened in the forming of previous Cabinets, Surapong said.

Pheu Thai is a new party for the disbanded People Power Party, which was set up to house MPs from the defunct Thai Rak Thai Party.