Election campaign posters along roads in Rayong city were removed last week, with the city municipality claiming that they were put up along the route of a royal motorcade.

Move Forward Party MP candidate Krit Silapachai found his missing campaign posters at the Rayong city municipality office.

Move Forward Party MP candidate Krit Silapachai posted on his Facebook page on 21 April that he found his missing campaign posters at the Rayong city municipality office and that he was told by the city clerk that the municipality were ordered to remove them because they lined the route of a royal motorcade.

The city clerk told Krit that he can come get the posters and put them back, which for him raised the question of whether the municipality is allowed to remove them. Krit also wrote that the municipality must put them back or he will sue them for harassing an MP candidate and misconduct.

Krit said that he previously received a message from a municipality official on the chat application Line telling him that because a royal motorcade was passing through the city on 20 April, the posters needed to be removed. He said they were removed by municipality officials, possibly on 18 – 19 April.

Although city officials said that they were not targeting the Move Forward Party because they removed every party’s posters, Krit still questioned why they needed to be removed because of a royal motorcade, since campaigning during an election is normal in a democratic country and the banners were in line with election regulations.

“The mayor of Rayong insisted they would put the posters back, but even so, this is election time, a competition in a democratic system. I don’t understand why the officials have to be so anxious. Why do they need to collect the posters when there is a royal motorcade? I want them to think about whether doing this is going to be good or bad for the election,” he said.

The National News Bureau of Thailand reported that Princess Sirindhorn, King Vajiralongkorn’s younger sister, visited the Pluak Daeng Development and Service Centre project, an agriculture development centre under the Royal Initiative, in Rayong on 20 April.