Process starts to find new Election commissioners
The recruitment of the new Election Commission (EC) will soon start replacing the current acting commissioners, who are having to vacate their posts as required by the new EC bill.
The committee seeking the new seven commissioners held its first meeting on Friday.
It resolved to accept applications from October 19 to November 10. All new commissioners must be sought by December 12, or 90 days after the bill came in effect.
The EC is a key player in the organising of general elections.
The committee that met on Friday consists of top judges from the Supreme Court and Supreme Administrative Court, the junta-appointed head legislator and experts appointed by independent organisations.
Acting commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, who has been opposing the new EC bill, had filed a petition to the Constitutional Court to consider whether the bill’s requirement for them to step down violated the charter.
The charter’s drafter chief Meechai Ruchuphan said on Friday that the seeking committee might decide to slow down the recruitment process to give the Constitutional Court more time to clarify the issue.
If new commissioners are sought prior to the Court having time to consider it, they would only have to follow the Court’s decision once it has ruled on it, he added.