BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said on Tuesday that he is not going to lift a ban on political activity for the time being.
Prayut, who concurrently heads the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), told reporters at Government House that the NCPO Order No.53/2560, issued last year to prohibit any political activity nationwide, is not going to be waived anytime soon.
Prayut had earlier said that “social unrest” and “political conflict” might probably happen again only if the ban was lifted at the moment.
Meanwhile, the premier said the NCPO ban will be amended to the extent that political parties can run their administrative affairs throughout the country.
He referred to the registration and confirmation of the memberships of varied political parties by people nationwide.
“The government and NCPO will see to it that the ban will be amended to the extent that the administrative problems of the political parties, old and new, might be alleviated. But that is by no means a waiver of the ban,” he said.
The existing parties are currently calling upon their respective party members to reconfirm their membership either at the parties’ headquarters in Bangkok or at their branch offices nationwide whereas dozens of groups of people applied to set up new parties at the Election Commission’s headquarters last month.
