Call for constitution bill to be reviewed

Tul Sithisomwong, the leader of the multicolour-shirt movement, said yesterday that the attempt to "amend" the whole constitution was on a questionable legal footing, so the charter amendment bill should be subjected to judicial interpretation.

“I will file a petition via the Office of the Ombudsman to initiate the judicial review,” he said.
The Constitution Court should clarify a point of law, as the bill would amend Article 291 of the Constitution to allow a Constitution Drafting Assembly to be formed to produce an entirely new charter, while he understood that the provision provides only for specific changes and not a complete rewrite.
Should the high court find the push to compose a new charter unconstitutional, all preparations must stop, he said.
Another legal angle was being explored to block the charter change by petitioning the Attorney-General’s Office to launch an inquiry into whether the move to discard the charter amounted to treason, he said.
Chief ombudsman Panit Nitithanprapas did not comment on Tul’s petition but dismissed an allegation that her office was under political pressure to rule in favour of the government on charges of ethical misconduct.
There was no outside influence trying to sway the ruling to clear charges related to the appointments of PM’s Office Minister Nalinee Taveesin and Deputy Agriculture Minister Natthawut Saikua, she said.
“The appointments of the two did not violate the PM’s Office code of ethics,” she said.
Although the advocacy group Green Politics initiated the inquiry by questioning the backgrounds of the two ministers, the ruling found that legal issues involving the two originated before their nominations to the Cabinet and were being reviewed at various stages of the legal proceedings without a conclusion drawn, she said.
Democrat Party spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut said the ruling Pheu Thai Party should not rush to assume that it had scored a political victory.
The ruling was clear that despite the lack of a clear breach of ethics, the screening process had failed to fully review any questionable activities involving the two before awarding them their positions, he said.
The ombudsman had called for the government to review the two appointments within 30 days. Even though the review was not mandatory and the government could ignore it, the ruling was far from condoning the appointments, he said.
Should Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra decide to keep the two in her Cabinet, that would be proof that her leadership falls short of expectations regarding ethical standards, he said.