Amnesty bill tops House agenda
Bill to be taken up in August; MPs, senators back decision on vetting charter change bills
The House of Representatives yesterday voted to move the amnesty bill proposed by Pheu Thai MP Worachai Hema to the top of the agenda. The move was preceded by hours of debate by the opposition, describing how the law would only benefit fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra and how it would lead to rifts among people.
As yesterday was the last day of the House meeting and today is the last day of the parliamentary session, the bill would be deliberated in the next session in August.
Despite a walkout by the Democrats, MPs and senators yesterday voted 359 to 19 to reaffirm the Parliament president’s earlier decision to have the three charter amendment bills vetted in 15 days.
Meanwhile, government MPs and some senators who support constitutional amendments are preparing to petition against the Constitutional Court’s decision to accept to rule on the legality of the charter change. The votes was cast after Parliament President Somsak Kiatsuranont and Democrat MPs spent more than two hours debating Parliament’s meeting regulations, during which Somsak faced strong protests from the Democrats.
Somsak called a joint meeting of MPs and senators yesterday after Democrat MPs cried foul, saying he had cut short an earlier joint meeting before MPs and senators could decide a timeframe on the vetting of the three bills.
When the joint meeting started, several Democrat MPs protested that the meeting had been closed and Somsak had no authority to reopen it. But Somsak argued that Democrat MPs themselves had urged him to reconvene the joint meeting to decide on the dispute over the timeframe for vetting the bill. Somsak explained that the meeting had to be held because on April 3, after the three bills were passed in the first reading, the Democrats called for the three special panels, set up to vet the drafts, to have 60 working days.
However, a quorum check was called and it was found that the MPs and senators did not make up the quorum hence, Somsak said, the meeting regulation had to be applied to set the vetting timeframe of 15 days. Somsak said he wanted the joint meeting yesterday to decide once and for all whether the vetting should be done in 15 days in line with the regulation as he announced on April 3.
Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva argued that Somsak should first rescind his decision to set the vetting timeframe of 15 days before the voting would be held. But Somsak said the meeting regulation did not allow him to do so. When Somsak cut short the protesting Democrats and called for a vote, most of Democrats staged a walkout. Those who remained in the room held up A4 sheets displaying word “dictator”. After the joint meeting reaffirmed the 15-day timeframe, the three ad hoc panels would finish the vetting today. The second reading of the bills has yet to be scheduled.
One of the bills seeks to amend Article 68, requiring people who want to invoke the article to defend the constitutional monarchy government, to petition the Constitutional Court only via the Office of the Attorney-General. But Senator Somchai Sawaengkarn has petitioned the court against the Article 68 amendment and the court voted 3:2 to proceed with the judicial review of the petition.
