People’s party proposes two charter amendment drafts to parliament

The opposition People’s party has proposed two constitutional amendment drafts to parliament, seeking the creation of a 150-member Constitution Drafting Assembly by means of two different electoral systems.

The party’s spokesman, Parit Wacharasindhu, said that the two drafts are almost identical, with only one distinct difference in the election process for the Constitution Drafting Assembly.

The first draft calls for the constituency election of 100 charter writers and another 50 writers via the party-list system. The list of the 150 elected will be submitted to a joint sitting of parliament for approval. If the entire list is rejected, a new election would be held.

The second draft calls for the constituency election of 200 hopefuls and party-list election of 100. The two separate list of 200 and 100 candidates would be submitted to a joint sitting of parliament to shortlist to 100 and 50 respectively. Each MP and senator can pick only one name.

Parit further explained that the assembly would appoint a 45-member drafting committee, half of which would be members of the assembly and the other half would be “outsiders” who are experts or who represent civic society.

The assembly can appoint another committee responsible for gathering public feedback if it so wishes, said Parit.

The Constitution Drafting Assembly would be given 360 days to complete the drafting of a new charter and the assembly would function without disruptions, even if parliament is dissolved.

Parit also said that the People’s party is supportive of the Pheu Thai party’s charter amendment draft, because the draft contains principles similar the People’s party’s three principles.

People’s party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, meanwhile, said that their two charter amendment drafts are in line with the party’s three principles, namely promotion of public participation, the charter drafting process is not dominated by any political group and the new charter will not seek additional privileges for legislators.

He pointed out that the party had to propose two drafts because of the limitations imposed by the Constitution Court’s ruling that the people cannot directly elect the charter drafting committee.

He is optimistic that at least one of the party’s drafts will pass its first reading in parliament.