Whips agree to use Senate rules in CDA election
Play
A whips' meeting yesterday resolved to apply the senatorial electoral rules in the voting for members of the Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA), said Senator Kamnoon Sitthisaman.
The coalition, Opposition and senatorial whips as well as the chairman of the panel on charter amendment attended the meeting, along with representatives from the Election Commission (EC).
The agreement is expected to break a deadlock that has seen the Opposition relying on delaying tactics for two consecutive days to block a vote on the contentious CDA election clause in the charter amendment bill.
Under the agreement, the government conceded to the Opposition’s demand for the adoption of the senatorial electoral rules in the voting for members of the drafting assembly.
In the original draft, the government wanted to apply the local administration election law, under which the Appeal Court is authorised to consider complaints against a candidate both before and after the election result is announced. It is also required to rule within 30 days of receiving a complaint.
The whips have now agreed to task the EC with organising the CDA elections. The agency will be empowered to issue yellow cards for campaign violations committed before voting day.
Any poll fraud detected after the vote will be subject to a ruling by the Supreme Court’s Elections Division.
Earlier yesterday, coalition chief whip Udomdej Rattanasatien said the government would be willing to meet the Opposition’s demand on the electoral rules for the CDA.
“Should the Opposition reciprocate by speeding up the debate on the charter amendment bill, the government won’t mind revising the draft to meet the Opposition’s demand,” he said.
Udomdej was speaking ahead of today’s meeting of coalition, Opposition and senatorial whips plus representatives of the EC to thrash out differences over the CDA electoral rules.
Despite devoting two of the past seven days to debating the contentious clause, Parliament as of press time remained unable to vote on the electoral rules.
Democrat MP Nakorn Machim, a panel member, said parliamentary officials were working on the details of the document on the basis that the senatorial election regulations would be used.
“If all sides can agree on it, the deliberation process will be a lot easier,” he said.
The coalition was pushing during the debate for the local election law to apply for the one-off poll.
At the same time, some MPs and senators proposed application of the senatorial election law, while the EC and some others were proposing to enact a new law on CDA elections.
The opposition argued that the electoral rules for senatorial elections should be applied as they were designed to weed out partisanship.
