Compromise over 'biased' Senate speaker

“I have no conflict of interest and I am not a party member,” he said, defending his conduct as speaker overseeing the parliamentary debate.

On the second day of debate, a number of Democrat MPs criticised Nikom for his leaning towards the coalition.

In his rebuttals, he said he was one of the co-sponsors for proposed charter amendments because he wanted to improve the political system. 

He then said he would not take part in the vote for the draft so that he could allay the opposition’s concern over his supervision of the debate.

But his remarks failed to convince the Democrats, who staged a walkout to protest what they claimed was a lopsided performance from Nikom.

In order to resume the debate, coalition whips intervened and agreed to allow Nikom to take the speaker’s chair only when coalition lawmakers were speaking from the floor. 

As per the agreement, House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranont would be on duty when the opposition lawmakers took the floor, with two Democrats speaking successively.

While Nikom oversees proceedings, government MPs and senators will take turns to speak.

On Monday, the Democrats refused to speak when Nikom took the chair.

Yesterday, opposition party whip Jurin Laksanawisit urged Nikom to withdraw his backing for charter amendment to show his neutrality, threatening an opposition walkout if he chaired the deliberation.

“MPs who insist on taking part in the debate with Nikom chairing have to take responsibility for their actions, because the opposition believes Nikom would be committing a constitutional offence and acting inappropriately and unfairly,’’ he said.

However, he said the opposition had not moved to seek a Constitution Court ruling on whether Nikom’s actions were unconstitutional.

Jurin added that he had asked government whip Amnuay Klangpa to confirm that the opposition would not get less debating time than the 15 hours allotted to government MPs. When the House debated the amendment of Article 291 of the Constitution, government whips gave the same amount of debating time to both opposition and government MPs.

The agreement on the new debate format seems to have settled the conflict between the two sides. The Democrats did not propose a motion calling for a House vote on whether Nikom should withdraw his signature from the charter change bill. However, chief government whip Amnuay Klangpa said government MPs would vote in support of Nikom if the Democrats proposed such a motion.