Princess Ubolratana: Thai royal 'sad' about election fallout that could see party disbanded

'I am sad that my honest intentions to work for the country and all Thais have resulted in a problem that should not arise in this day and age'

‘Honest intentions’: Princess Ubolratana (AP)

The Thai princess who made an ill-fated attempt to run as a prime ministerial candidate yesterday said she was sad about the fallout.

The party that nominated Princess Ubolratana is now being threatened with dissolution.

Her brief foray into political life had threatened to turn the landscape of Thai politics on its head – until it was unceremoniously shot down by her brother, King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Her candidacy was formally rejected by the election commission on Monday. Now the commission is going one step further in recommending that her Thai Raksa Chart Party be dissolved because its prime ministerial candidate was “in conflict with the system of rule of democracy with king as head of state”.

In a statement, the election commission said its recommendation had been forwarded to the Constitutional Court for a decision.

Earlier on Wednesday, the princess took to Instagram to reflect on the fallout of her candidacy, which the king had called out as “inappropriate” in a public broadcast aired simultaneously on all major Thai TV channels.

Addressing her more than 100,000 followers, Ubolratana said: “I am sad that my honest intentions to work for the country and all Thais have resulted in a problem that should not arise in this day and age.” She added the hashtag “HowComeItsTheWayItIs”.

After the king overruled its candidate, Thai Raksa Chart avowed its fealty to the king and acceptance of his order, but its opponents urged its dissolution.

Before the election commission made its recommendation, party leader Preechapol Pongpanit called for the body to hear its defence.

“If they don’t let us tell our side, it’d be as if we were tied by our hands and feet,” he said.

Ubolratana’s candidacy could have pitted her against the preferred candidate, the pro-royal prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the general who led the 2014 military coup.

Prayuth is considered the frontrunner largely because election laws enacted under his government in 2016 made it much more difficult for a party to form a government without the backing of the military and royalist establishment.

Under the military-drafted constitution, the junta appoints all of the upper house, which along with the lower house gets to vote for prime minister.

The Thai Raksa Chart Party is not the largest of the parties that support the still influential former prime minister and telecoms tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a different military coup in 2006.

Nonetheless, its dissolution would undoubtedly cost the pro-Thaksin bloc a number of key seats in next month’s election, and deepen concerns about the fairness of the poll – the first since the 2014 coup.

Those concerns were heightened on Tuesday when the country’s telecoms regulator suspended the operating licence of a TV station linked to Thaksin, citing national security concerns.

Additional reporting by agencies