Pheu Thai insists on simple majority principle for referendum bill

Pheu Thai MP Prayut Siripanich said on Sunday that his party insisted on the principle of a simple majority in a new public-referendum bill.

Prayut, who is deputy chairman of the joint House-Senate committee ironing out differences over the referendum bill, said the ruling Pheu Thai Party would not abandon the principle that a public referendum could be passed with a simple majority.

Prayut was commenting on a compromising proposal floated by Chart Thai Pattana Party director Nikorn Chamnong, who said the bill’s content should be altered to require “one and a half” majority instead of simple majority or double majority to pass any referendum.

Nikorn said the compromise was needed to win senators’ support so that the plan to rewrite the Constitution would not be bogged down.

A new referendum bill is needed to be enacted to provide a tool for holding public referenda on whether a new constitution should be written and whether the people would endorse the new charter draft.

Initially, the House of Representatives voted 409-0 to pass the third reading of the public referendum bill on August 21 to require any referendum to be approved with a simple majority of votes by people who come out to vote.

However, the Senate voted on September 30 to pass its version of the bill that requires charter referenda to be passed with a double majority – the public referendum must be participated in by the majority of eligible voters and the referendum must be approved by the majority of voters who come out to vote. The Senate version exempts other kinds of referenda from the double-majority requirement.

On October 9, the House voted 348-0 with 65 MPs abstaining to reaffirm its original version that was passed by the House in third reading, requiring just a simple majority for approving any public referendum.

With the House’s affirmation of its version, the two chambers were required to set up a joint panel to iron out differences.

In Nikorn’s proposal, he said the referendum should be participated in by the simple majority of eligible voters and the winning side must have more votes than the number of “no-comment” or abstention votes.

Prayut said on Sunday that Pheu Thai still insisted on the simple-majority principle for the bill.

He said Nikorn’s proposal was similar to the double-majority idea but with altered conditions.

Prayut said the joint committee would hold its next meeting on Wednesday and the panel would listen to opinions of representatives from Thailand Post and the Election Commission Office as to whether people can vote via Thailand Post services in a public referendum.

Prayut said he thought it would be difficult to verify voters if they vote by mail, but the committee would have to listen to explanations and views of Thailand Post and the EC first.