Participation in the Political Party in Thailand : Party’s Nomination Process

Abstract

     The objectives of this study are: 1) to investigate nomination process of political party from regulation of political party 2) to examine the potential candidates to recruit in the nomination process of political party in reality;

     The study of the nomination process showed that the 2007 Organic Law on Political Parties mandates that the nomination processes in local areas must provide opportunities for political participation in the party’s branch convention. However the purpose of law is void because the process is distorted. The Democrat Party’s nomination process is distorted in three respects: 1) each branch’s party convention only collects a list
of candidates for party committee; 2) application can be done in head office; 3) selection of provincial committees is open to corruption.

     In reality, the participation process in party branch conventions does not work because the branch committees, which can choose the members who take part in the convention, are dominated by a few factions in each local area. The branches therefore do not provide opportunities for participation.