Revised charter draft to face judicial review

The court will submit separate letters to concerned parties including the National Legislative Assembly, the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) and the Cabinet, asking each to submit additional opinions and related documents on the issue by Monday.

The Constitutional Court has been asked to rule on whether the changes made by the CDC to the original charter draft comply with the referendum results. In the plebiscite, voters approved of allowing handpicked senators to join elected MPs in choosing a prime minister for a five-year term after the next Parliament convenes. 

The court has 30 days to finish deliberations and rule on the legality of the revised draft.

Meanwhile, the CDC will ask concerned parties to review the document and give their opinions on the ongoing enactment of organic laws needed before the next election.

CDC chief Meechai Ruchupan said the CDC had received a bill concerning political parties from the Election Commission (EC) and would begin considering it.

He added that the CDC had not taken a stance on the draft bill’s proposals because it needed to consider the text based on what was written in the charter.

Under the draft bill, the EC proposed that political parties would not be easily dissolved as in the past. The only condition under which a party would be dissolved would be if a party fails to field constituency candidates.

Meechai added that actions by political parties deemed to violate the bill, including threats to national security, should ultimately be decided by the Constitutional Court, not the EC.

He responded to an NRSA proposal that the Interior Ministry should jointly organise the general election by saying the EC could ask for the ministry’s support through existing regulations. 

He said that the CDC had nothing to do with a proposal for an experimental local election before the general election to test a joint election authority, including the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). However, he said the NCPO had authority to oversee such an election.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said Meechai had assigned staff members to study India’s organisation of general elections, which are supervised by only one commissioner, adding that the method was not as peculiar as some people had speculated.

The draft charter, he said, specified that the EC would include seven commissioners, suggesting that the CDC’s study would not lead to a restructuring of the EC – as has been speculated – following the enactment of the organic laws.