Chaturon is wrong: TRT 111 were banned for electoral offences

Former Thai Rak Thai party leader Chaturon Chaisang blamed the 2006 coup as the source of the “injustice” that caused the 111 former TRT executives to be banned from politics; and the TRT to be dissolved. That claim was not totally true.

The TRT was dissolved on May 30, 2007 by the Constitutional Tribunal for violation of election laws: A number of high-ranking party members were found to be directly involved in bribing several small parties into competing in constituencies that were bases of the former opposition parties -- to ensure that minimum turnout rules were met in favour of the TRT itself.

As a result, 111 members of the TRT party, including Thaksin, were barred from participating in politics for 5 years by order of the Constitutional Court.

Vint Chavala

Lamphun