House of Representatives of Thailand - Qualification

Qualification

The qualifications to be a candidate for the House of Representatives are outlined in Section 101, Part 2, Chapter 6 of the 2007 Constitution. The candidate must be a citizen of Thailand by birth only. The citizen must be at the age of twenty-five or older on Election Day and having been born in the province in which he or she intends to stand as a candidate. The candidate must have been a voter and therefore on the electoral register for at least five years directly before the election, and he or she must also have a house or been in public service in the province for five years. The candidate must also have been a member of an educational institution in that province for at least five consecutive years. Politically, a candidate must be a member of one political party for a period of at least ninety days before Election Day, except in cases of dissolution where thirty days is the minimum period. This is done to discourage party switching before the election. For party list candidates, they must also meet the same qualifications except for the provincial restrictions. They are instead divided in lists based on 'provincial groups'.

Those specifically barred from being candidates and therefore members of the House are individuals who were: addicted to drugs, declared bankrupt, unable to vote (see voter eligibility below), a former convicted felon (the individual must wait for five years after release to be eligible), removed from public service for being corrupt or incompetent, had assets confiscated due to embezzlement; and finally, the individual must not be a member of the: government or civil service, Senate, local administrations, member of the judiciary or other independent agencies.