A key party linked to Thailand’s powerful Shinawatra clan was dissolved on Thursday by a court, just weeks before a general election, over its ill-starred bid to front a Princess as a candidate for Premier.
Thai Raksa Chart, which is tied to ex-Premiers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra, proposed Princess Ubolratana as its prime ministerial candidate if its bloc emerged with a Lower House majority after the March 24 election.
The Election Commission alleged that Thai Raksa Chart had committed an act “hostile to the constitutional monarchy” and called for its dissolution.
On Thursday, judges of the Constitutional Court voted unanimously to dissolve the party, and its executives — including two Shinawatra family members — were also banned from politics for a decade.
The Princess reacted to the news on Instagram. “I have heard the news. It is sad and depressing,” she said.
