Elected senators fight with appointees over new speaker: Singchai
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The race to become new Senate speaker on August 6 will be an intense affair, with appointed senators and their elected counterparts wrestling for control of the upper chamber, said Senator Singchai Thungthong yesterday.
“The situation will heat up because the appointed senators are unlikely to cede control to the elected senators,” he said.
Control of the Senate is essential because it is a key influence in deciding how two contentious issues, reconciliation and charter change, will unfold, he said.
Two candidates, Pichet Soontornpipit (an appointee from the academic sector) and Nikom Wairatpanij (elected from Chachoengsao), are equally qualified for the job, he said, adding he expected all appointed senators would cast their votes for Pichet even though many had good ties with Nikom.
Senator Somchai Swangkarn (an appointee from the private sector) said the next speaker should be a politically neutral figure.
He said he did not expect the race to boil down to a choice between an elected and an appointed senator.
He said all senators still had time to reach a mutual agreement to install the best-qualified candidate, adding that the two candidates plus Senator Direk Teungfung would emerge as frontrunners for the job.
As Nikom is seen as close to the Pheu Thai Party, he should step down from his position of deputy speaker so as to dispel doubts about his partisanship before entering the race, said Somchai. Commenting on the race, Nikom said that if he was appointed, he was willing to take on the role of go-between for the three main cliques in the Senate.
The three cliques comprise the so-called Group of 40, the opposition to that group and the 50 to 60 senators who remain unaligned.
Nikom said that should he lose the race, it would signify that elected senators were not a cohesive group. The Criminal Court on Wednesday found previous Senate Speaker Thiradet Meepien guilty of malfeasance in awarding himself a pay increase when he was Ombudsman in 2004.
Thiradet said yesterday he would seek legal advice before deciding whether to appeal within the 30-day deadline. In the meantime, he remains in his post as a senator.
