EC urged to investigate Pita for allegedly holding media shares

On 10 May 2023, Ruangkrai Leekitwattana, a Palang Pracharath party-list candidate, filed a petition with the Election Commission (EC) to investigate Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader and PM candidate of the Move Forward Party, for allegedly holding shares in a media company.

Ruangkrai found that Pita is shareholder No.6,121, holding 42,000 shares in iTV, a defunct television company, as of 27 April 2022. He said Section 98(3) of the Constitution prohibits a shareholder or owner of any media company from running as an MP. 

He urged the EC to investigate when Pita obtained the shares. If Pita acquired the shares before the 2019 general election on 24 March 2019, he would have been ineligible to run for parliament at that time. Ruangkrai added that on 25 May 2022, Pita declared his 45 assets to the parliament. However, the 42,000 shares in iTV were not included. 

“I have no worries, as these shares are not mine. It is an inheritance. I am just a will executor, and I consulted and declared this to the National Anti-Corruption Commission a long time ago” Pita said on Twitter

He added that his legal team is preparing a clarification to the EC when they ask for one. And he is certain that this issue will not end up as a repetition of the case in the 2019 general election. 

Several MPs were impeached after that election for holding media shares, one of them being Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the former leader and party-list candidate of the dissolved Future Forward Party, who was accused of holding 675,000 shares in V-luck Media, leading to the termination of his MP status on 23 May 2019.

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