Charter change draft passes second reading

Most MPs and senators voted to support charter changes to allow the establishment of a Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) consisting of 99 members – 77 elected and 22 appointed. They also backed the original amendment draft spelling out required qualifications for and prohibitions on CDA candidates, with a slight change.

Late on Thursday night, the parliamentarians voted 346-134, with seven abstentions, not to change the wording in Article 291/1 of the original draft, which passed its first reading in late February.

Opposition MPs – mostly from the Democrat Party – and a number of senators failed to convince a majority in Parliament to increase the number of elected CDA members from 77 in the original draft. They said that a higher number, such as 150, would better represent the different groups of people in the country and prevent attempts to influence the election results.

In the Cabinet draft, each of the country’s 77 provinces is to elect one CDA member, regardless of the province’s size. Opposition MPs and some senators said this is unfair to provinces with larger populations, such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Ubon Ratchathani, which deserve to have more representatives in the CDA. 

The 22 other CDA members will be experts in law, political science and related fields appointed by the Parliament.

Thursday’s meeting was adjourned shortly before 1am yesterday and was resumed in the morning.

Parliamentarians voted 340-124 yesterday – the third day of the second reading – to retain the original version of Article 291/2, which concerns the qualifications of CDA candidates. 

Most parliamentarians agreed with a proposal from the majority members of the vetting committee that the original version be retained. In the original version, CDA members are required to be Thai nationals by birth, at least 35 years old on election day, and to have been born in the province they are contesting in, or to have lived there for at least five years.

Opposition MPs and some senators suggested that Constitution drafters should be required to hold a bachelor’s degree, and that the minimum age should be reduced to 25 to allow younger people to take part in the charter writing. However, they failed to convince a majority in Parliament.

Regarding Article 291/3, the majority on the vetting committee agreed to a proposal by minority panel members that another prohibition should be added, barring anyone from running as a CDA candidate who has been discharged for less than five years as of election day after being sentenced to imprisonment, excepting those sentenced for petty offences or offences committed through negligence.