Senate’s shooting down of House resolution on new charter no surprise, say gurus

The Senate voted 157:12 to kill the resolution that was passed by the House on November 3 last year.

The resolution was made based on a motion submitted by opposition MPs Natthapong Ruengpanyawut (Move Forward, Bangkok), and Julapun Amornvivat (Pheu Thai, Chiang Mai), on September 15.

The motion called on the Cabinet to approve a public referendum to sound out voters’ opinions on whether a new constitution should be drafted by an elected charter drafting assembly.

The motion received an overwhelming majority vote from 324 MPs. One MP abstained and seven did not cast a vote.

Before the Senate rejected the motion, Somchai Sawaengkarn, chairman of a panel that reviewed the motion, said the problem lay in the fact that the motion did not seek to amend the charter but wanted a new one written.

Somchai said Julapun had told him that three referendums would have to be held before a new charter can be enacted. This, Somchai said, could cost as much as 15 billion baht.

The senator also pointed out that the new charter drafting assembly has not been endorsed or mentioned at all in the current constitution.

Now that the Senate has rejected the decision, the matter will return to the House of Representatives for review. If the matter does not require a budget, the House must wait 180 days before it can reaffirm its decision.

If a budget is required, then the House can bring the matter up for review in 10 days.

However, the House met for a final time last week with no more meetings scheduled before its tenure ends in late March.

Hence, the Senate’s decision is tantamount to the motion being completely killed.

Political gurus said coalition MPs were so gung-ho about the motion because they knew the timing and the fact that the Senate will eventually kill it. By supporting the writing of a new charter, the coalition MPs could make themselves look like supporters of democracy, they said.