Monday set as deadline for resubmission of censure motion

The Opposition has until next Monday to re-submit its censure debate motion, otherwise it will not be debated in Parliament because the current session ends on April 10, said Muk Sulaiman, Secretary to the House Speaker.

House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha returned the original motion to Opposition leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut of the People’s Party last week, asking him to remove any reference to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Wan Muhamad said that mentioning Thaksin, an outsider, would violate parliamentary meeting regulations, but Natthaphong refused to do so, claiming that outsiders have been named in no-confidence debates in the past.

Wan Muhamad has implied that he will not add the motion to Parliament’s agenda if Thaksin’s name remains.

Muk said yesterday that the department which handles Parliament’s meetings has already checked the records and found no previous direct mentions of outsiders by name, adding that “In the past, what was mentioned were references to family members or former members, but not their names directly.”

The Secretariat of the House of Representatives will notify the Opposition this week that it must remove Thaksin’s name from the motion and resubmit it immediately, so that it can be added to Parliament’s agenda.

Today, Sirikanya Tansakul, the deputy party leader of the People’s party, maintained his position, that they will not delete Thaksin’s name from its censure debate motion, in an open defiance of the House Speaker’s order, on the grounds that its motion is perfectly legal.

She said, however, that the party will meet with House Speaker to try to settle the conflict this week, adding that the party will not give up its bid to censure Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra during this parliamentary session.

She also said that the party will have to wait and see if or how the conflict can be resolved, adding that some people have suggested replacing Thaksin’s name with “You Know Who” or “That Man.”

The no-confidence debate is tentatively set to begin on March 24.