Second reading of constitution bill finalised
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The second reading of a bill to allow the establishment of a Constitu-tional Drafting Assembly finished yesterday with the final article requiring the recruitment of CDA members to begin within 15 days after the law takes effect.
While there must be a break of at least 15 days before the third reading and finalisation of the charter amendment, the drafted law requires a royal decree for the election of CDA members within 15 days after the law takes effect. It also requires the process to recruit members of the drafting body be finished within 90 days.
The date for the third reading has yet to be scheduled.
MPs and senators yesterday proposed that people who join the drafting assembly be banned from holding a political post for five years. However, the proposal was defeated in a vote.
Yesterday was the 15th day of deliberation in the second reading of the bill in Parliament. After, the House-Senate joint meeting voted for almost all of the draft proposed by a parliamentary ad hoc committee on charter amendment led by Samart Kaewmeechai, a former charter drafter and MP from the ruling Pheu Thai Party.
The only change from the panel’s draft was that instead of applying local administration election law, the election of members of the drafting assembly would be based on the law citing requirements for people who seek to be MPs and senators.
The bill – a change to Article 291 of the 2007 Constitution that cites only the process of charter amendment – allows the setting up of a new drafting body to draw up a new version of the supreme law.
The new CDA will be made up of 99 members – 77 elected to represent each of the provinces, and 22 members appointed by the Parliament. Six of them will be experts in public law, with six experts in political science or public administration, plus 10 with experience in politics, public administration, economic or social fields, or charter drafting.
The Parliament President is authorised to issue selection regulations and a 15-member panel will verify the qualifications of candidates nominated by university councils, social, economic and private agencies.
After the members are selected, the Assembly is required to finish drafting the new charter within 240 days. The time count will pause if the House of Representatives reaches the end of a term or is dissolved. But it can continue working after a new House is formed.
In drafting the new constitution, the assembly is required to hear opinions from people in all regions.
However, the amendment prohibits changing the political system from a constitutional monarchy. It also prohibits changing the form of the state from a single state, and prohibits changing any clause in the chapter on the monarchy in the current Constitution.
The Election Commission will be required to hold a national referendum on the CDA’s new charter within 60 days after it receives the draft passed on by the Parliament President. However, the EC must leave at least 45 days before holding the referendum as time to promote the ballot and publicising the charter draft. This must be done within 60 days but not before 45 days after the EC receives the draft.
In case the CDA does not finish the drafting process in time, fewer than half of the CDA members remain or the draft contains prohibited content, the Parliament or the Cabinet can propose a new assembly be set up to finish the draft.
