PPRP skips by-election as no Kraikupt eligible after Pareena ban
The Kraikupt dynasty’s grip on Ratchaburi province is under threat now that Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) MP Pareena Kraikupt has been banned from politics for life.
PPRP met on Friday to discuss the upcoming by-election and decided there were no suitable candidates, especially since none of Pareena’s siblings can complete the 90-day-plus party membership requirement.
PPRP’s secretary-general Santi Promphat said the party wanted the Kraikupt family to maintain its hold in Ratchaburi, and since getting one of them to run this time was not possible, it would skip this by-election.
Candidates for the May 21 Ratchaburi Constituency 3 by-election have until Monday to register.
As for the next general election, Santi said PPRP was not worried about losing its influence in the province because Pareena’s father Tawee Kraikupt has been a Ratchaburi MP seven times, while Pareena has held the post four times. He said the Kraikupt family has worked hard for the benefit of their constituents.
He added that the party sympathised with Pareena.
Separately, the former MP said she had not prepared anybody to take over after her because she never thought she would be disqualified. She added that she will join the PPRP campaign in the next election to explain herself to voters.
On April 7, the Supreme Court hit Pareena with a lifetime ban from politics after it found her in violation of political ethics and conflict of interest by possessing state-owned land.
Her 665-rai poultry farm in the province’s Chom Bung district was found to have been allocated to landless farmers but remains reserved forest land.