Change Party of former online lottery platform owner to hold caucus next week

Pichet Sathirachaval, a former Palang Pracharath party-list MP, said the Change Party would hold its first caucus on March 23 when the party would announce the names of key supporters and core members.

The owner of Kong Salak Plus, Nanthawat Nakwisut, launched the party after being forced to shut down the lottery platform following raids by officials.

Pichet said he himself had not formally joined the party as there was still enough time to apply for its membership to be eligible to contest the next election as a Change Party candidate.

Pichet said the names of the core members would include some current and former MPs and former Cabinet members.

The caucus would also elect the party’s executive board and would make preparations for contesting the upcoming election, Pichet added.

He said he would be on the candidate selection committee and the party would field candidates in 30 out of 400 constituencies.

Pichet added that the Change Party would focus on launching election campaigns via social media because the party saw that holding campaigns on streets has become irrelevant to the new generation of voters.

“We are confident that the Change Party will win some House seats,” Pichet added.

Nanthawat has set up Change Party with the slogan “Together we can change”. He said the party would fight the regulation that bars the private sector from selling lottery online.

He launched his party after his popular Kong Salak Plus platform was shut down by the Department of Special Investigation on allegations that the platform was used to launder money from online gambling websites.

In a related development on Thursday, Pirawit Ruangluedollapak, former leader of Thai Rak Tham Party, said his younger brother, Korn Promma, would be a candidate of the Change Party.

Pirawit himself cannot run in the election because he is under a political ban after his party was dissolved in October last year for violating the party’s laws.