PAD will go to court on constitution

“What they are doing will result in the complete tearing-up of the charter,” Chamlong Srimuang, a leader of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), said yesterday.
There might be a hidden agenda behind the government’s campaign for a charter change, he said.
The PAD’s opposition to annulling the charter would be via the judicial process, not by taking part in a rally on Saturday. The yellow shirts would hit the streets again to protest only if there was a move to encroach on the monarchy or grant immunity to fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The group would today hold a meeting with Siam Prachapiwat academics to exchange views on the political system.
The PAD plans to cite Article 68 of the Constitution when petitioning the Office of the Attorney-General to check into the constitutionality of the charter amendment bill.
The bill has been designed to scrap the entire charter, but Parliament has the constitutional mandate to amend the charter and not write a whole new replacement.
Should the prosecutors find cause to suspect a charter repeal, they are obliged to petition the Constitution Court to intervene and issue an injunction against the drafting.
Any political parties involved in ripping up the charter would face punishment by party dissolution.