House lives up to its nickname, marijuana bill delayed further
The House of Representatives started the year by doing what it acquired a reputation for doing last year – failing to summons enough MPs to reach quorum.
As a result, the second reading of the marijuana and hemp bill was delayed again on Wednesday.
The chairman of the meeting, Deputy House Speaker Supachai Phosu, on Wednesday repeatedly rang the bell for MPs to return to the meeting room to no avail.
Supachai waited for about 40 minutes for the House to achieve quorum, but the number of MPs failed to reach the required 212. As a result, he adjourned the meeting to deliberate Section 11 of the bill.
At the end of last year, Parliament-beat reporters gave the House the nickname “Sam Wan Nee See Wan Lom” – “Absent Every Three Days, Collapse Every Four” – due to its repeated failure to convene meetings. Either there were too few MPs to reach quorum or opposition MPs walked out in protest.
Earlier on Wednesday, the House almost failed to meet a quorum for deliberations on a separate section of the marijuana and hemp bill. Supachai waited for about 15 minutes before 218 MPs were present for the vote on Section 7 of the bill.
The meeting was scheduled to continue for a vote on Section 11 of the bill but too few MPs remained at the meeting.
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