The Election Commission (EC) did the right thing in maintaining existing political parties and making sure their dissolution will be difficult in the draft organic law on political parties it submitted to the Constitution Drafting Committee.
Details of the proposed bill, one of the 10 organic laws that must be completed soon to pave the way for an election, may still be up for debate, including a requirement for party members to pay membership fees and a ban on political parties boycotting an election. But at least the principle follows the democratic tenet that sees political parties as the main vehicle for citizens to partake in politics.
The organic bill on political parties has been closely watched following suggestions made on many occasions that all parties be disbanded and re-registered to reset the political landscape.
The latest such proposal, otherwise known as an attempt to set Thai politics back to zero, came from the National Reform Steering Assembly's (NRSA) panel on political reform. The theory is based on the rationale that such a requirement will create a level political playing field and allow smaller parties to compete against bigger, more established and better known ones.
What the NRSA political reformers may have overlooked is that in focusing only on breaking the dominance of major parties, they could end up undermining constructive participation of citizens and voters through political parties which is key to democratic development.
There is no evidence to suggest that disbanding political parties could help smaller ones become more competitive on the campaign trail either. Recent experience seems to suggest otherwise.
Take the case of disbanded Thai Rak Thai. The party, which had more than 14 million members and won enough seats to form a single-party government in 2005, was ordered by the Constitutional Court to be dissolved in 2007.
From the ashes of the Thai Rak Thai Party sprung the People's Power Party which again won an election and set up a government headed by veteran politician Samak Sundaravej.
People's Power soon met the same fate and was disbanded for election fraud. After that, the Pheu Thai Party was set up to house the People's Power's former members. Pheu Thai won an election in 2011 which saw Yingluck Shinawatra become the first-ever female prime minister of Thailand.
The Thai Rak Thai case should have proven beyond doubt that disbanding political parties will have no effect on their support base or popularity. Pursuing the measure would be yet another futile attempt to reshape the political field.
In proposing that political parties be dissolved, the NRSA obviously wanted to break the domination by the country's two major political parties of the electoral landscape and provide more chances for small and medium ones. The move is consistent with the mixed-member proportional representation electoral system and use of a single ballot prescribed by constitution writers in the draft charter. The systems are seen to be favouring smaller parties more than big ones in an election.
The vision of the NRSA political reform panel is surely misplaced. Active participation by citizens in politics through membership in political parties forms a basic step for democracy. If anything, more direct involvement should be encouraged which will prompt political parties to be more accountable to their supporters and more responsive to what they want to see as public policies.
The attempt to sever the ties between voters and their political parties will not create equality as claimed by the NRSA's panel for political reform. It will only set back the political party system, which is in fact the backbone of democracy.