Thailand's nine political parties complete candidacy application

BANGKOK, December 23 (TNA) - Representatives of 34 political parties have managed to seek list-MP candidacy applications with the Election Commission of Thailand (EC) at the Thai-Japanese Stadium in Bangkok's Din Daeng area, nine of which have completely submitted their application documents, including those of the ruling Pheu Thai Party. Although anti-government demonstrators tried every means to block the applications of party-list candidates, which began on Monday morning, EC staffs later reported that representatives of the 34 political parties had arrived at the stadium and those of nine political parties had filed all required application documents while other parties faxed their documents. The representatives of other political parties whom demonstrators blocked from reaching the stadium filed their complaints at the Din Daeng police station, instead. The key list-MP candidates of the Pheu Thai Party are as expected, with Caretaker Thai Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra being its number one party-list candidate, followed by Somchai Wongsawat, a former Thai prime minister, and Charupong Ruangsuwan, the party's incumbent leader. The EC will have representatives of the political parties, which have filed their applications, draw the numbers of their parties on December 24 for the new general election, set on February 2, 2014 in a Royal Decree issued on December 9, 2013. Demonstrators of the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), meanwhile, moved from the Thai-Japanese Stadium to besiege the Din Daeng police station, as list-MP candidates of 26 political parties and EC staffs went there to file their complaints about the blockage of demonstrators. The situation at the Din Daeng police station was, thus, temporarily tense, as the demonstrators misunderstood that the EC arranged for the candidacy applications at the police station instead and they blocked the party-list candidates from leaving the police station.(TNA)