[4] Shortly ahead of the elections in September 1992, Chatichai Choonhavan, who had been prime minister until the military coup d'état in 1991, and a group of other Thai Nation Party politicians around Chatichai's nephew Korn Dabbaransi took over the party and renamed it.
The establishment followed a rupture in the Thai Nation Party, whose leadership around Somboon Rahong and secretary general Banharn Silpa-archa had stood at the side of the military junta (NPKC) during the popular protests and bloody crackdown of Black May.
[5] They were joined by members of the likewise military-allied Justice Unity Party who now wanted to disassociate themselves from the junta.
They included General Arthit Kamlang-ek (who thus returned to his original party), Somchai Khunpluem ("Kamnan Poh", or the "Godfather of Chonburi")[6] and Suwat Liptapanlop, an entrepreneur from Nakhon Ratchasima.
He presented it as a new party which consisted mainly of younger lawmakers, espoused democracy and took a neutral position in the polarised political spectrum.