People’s Party rattled as Bangkok candidate arrested, late swap sparks voter doubts

The arrest of Boonyarit Raorungroj, the People’s Party’s Bangkok constituency 33 candidate, has sent shockwaves through the party’s capital-city base after police detained him late on December 27 over allegations of money laundering linked to a drug network operating through four transport businesses.

Senior party figures — including party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, the party’s prime ministerial candidate Picharn Chaowapatanawong (an executive member with authority over candidate selection), and Rangsiman Rome, a prominent party figure known for campaigning against “grey capital” and scammers — publicly apologised to the public, calling it a force majeur.

Party leaders said the People’s Party had tightened its vetting process for both constituency and party-list candidates compared with previous elections. They said screening included fingerprint checks to verify criminal records, credit bureau checks for prospective candidates, and a system on the party’s website allowing members of the public to submit complaints up to the final stage before nominations were filed.

However, in Boonyarit’s case, the party said it carried out those background checks before December 17. Police then issued an arrest warrant on December 17, and 10 days later raided and detained him at his home — without issuing a summons beforehand — a development that party leaders said also came as a shock to them.

The case surfaced after the party had already submitted its full slate of Bangkok constituency candidates for all 33 seats on December 27. Although the party can still amend constituency nominations during the registration window from December 27-31, the episode is expected to affect supporter confidence to some degree.

Emergency primary vote and a high-profile return

The controversy has erupted in the final stretch — just over a month before polling day on February 8, 2026 — forcing the People’s Party to hold a fresh primary vote on the evening of December 29.

The party resolved to field Taopiphop Limjittrakorn, a former two-term Bangkok MP from the Future Forward-Move Forward era, who had previously announced he would step back from frontline politics to support the party behind the scenes. He is now returning to contest Bangkok constituency 33 in an effort to contain the fallout.

However, constituency 33 is not Taopiphop’s original base. In the 2019 election he served as an MP for Bangkok constituency 22. After constituency boundaries were redrawn in 2023, he won again in what became Bangkok constituency 24 (Thon Buri) — covering Bukkhalo, Talat Phlu, Dao Khanong and Samre, as well as Khlong San and Rat Burana (Bang Pakok). He has since handed over that area to Napat Chittaphinankanta, a writer and film lecturer, to run as the party’s candidate.

Bangkok constituency 33 — covering Bang Phlat and Bangkok Noi — was previously associated with Pongpun Yodmuangcharoen, but he was not selected to run in 2026. Reports have suggested this was due to concerns that his work on the ground had not been strong enough.

Boonyarit, meanwhile, has long been close to the orange camp since the Move Forward era. He previously served as an MP assistant to Pongpun and led the “Bang Phlat team”, one of Pongpun’s working groups. Near the election period, Boonyarit and his team resigned from their roles, before drawing criticism for allegedly “betraying” Pongpun by running for the constituency 33 nomination instead.

With Taopiphop returning to contest a seat outside his old base, the People’s Party now faces a tougher fight in a district where it must compete head-to-head with three established rivals: Pheu Thai, Bhumjaithai, and the Democrat Party.

Candidate vetting: a recurring vulnerability

The incident has also revived scrutiny of the orange camp’s candidate selection process — an issue that critics say has repeatedly surfaced since the formation of Future Forward in 2018. The problems have been grouped into four broad patterns:

1. Some candidates have faced personal scandals, including relationship-related cases, forcing the party to expel them and lose parliamentary seats.
2. Some candidates have faced political cases, including cases linked to Section 112, which—despite not yet reaching final verdicts—still pose a risk of seat loss.
3. Some candidates have been accused of hiding ideological positions, entering Parliament and later becoming “cobras” by switching sides — a phenomenon the orange camp has faced across three iterations.
4. Some candidates or party members have been linked to other criminal matters from the past, which have periodically surfaced in the media over the last seven years.

Risk to Bangkok confidence

The case is seen as particularly damaging in Bangkok, where the orange camp enjoys a large and energetic supporter base. In the 2023 election, the Move Forward Party swept 32 of Bangkok’s 33 seats, winning 1,397,554 constituency votes and 1,600,689 party-list votes in the capital.

For the 2026 election, the People’s Party has been aiming from the outset for a full “landslide” across all 33 Bangkok seats, after months of preparation. The Boonyarit scandal has now disrupted that plan.

The timing is also politically awkward, as it comes while the party has been campaigning under the slogan “Vote orange, defeat grey” — yet one of its own candidates has now been linked to a “grey” criminal case, raising uncomfortable questions among supporters, many of whom are young voters and Bangkok’s middle class.

Analysts say any loss of confidence in the capital could spread beyond Bangkok and affect the party’s national prospects — a possibility that cannot be ruled out.

As political winds shift, the race for Bangkok’s seats is expected to become even more volatile. Rival parties in the red, blue and light-blue camps are likely to seize on the controversy to attack the People’s Party and attempt to reclaim ground in a capital that has been “painted orange” for two consecutive elections.

How the People’s Party manages the crisis over the next month will be closely watched.