Democrats to boycott meetings
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MPs want 60 days to be set for scrutiny; Speaker decision 'unlawful'
The Constitution amendment process might be interrupted even though the first reading was completed on Wednesday night, as the Democrats have decided to boycott it, saying the process is unlawful.
Meanwhile, both supporters and the opposition are seeking a court ruling to block the other side.
Opposition and Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said House Speaker Somsak Kiartsuranont should call a House meeting to resolve the amount of time that should be allocated for scrutinising the charter-amendment bill, otherwise his side would seek a ruling from the Constitutional Court.
According to Abhisit, some senators did not vote in support of the provision related to how senators get their seats because they fear being removed on grounds of conflict of interest.
He said lawmakers could petition to remove senators or MPs who endorse charter amendments and thus commit constitutional offences by having a conflict of interest. The best example for this is Senate Speaker Nikom Wairatpanit, who chaired a House meeting even though he endorsed the Constitutional amendment.
Democrat MPs walked out of the first House committee meeting on charter amendment yesterday in protest against what they claimed was a violation of House directives.
The House committee scrutinising the draft amendment of Articles 68 and 237 held its first meeting, which was temporarily chaired by Pheu Thai Party MP Wirot Pao-in and named Nonthaburi Senator Direk Tuengfang as chairman.
Democrat MP Wiratana Kalayasiri then told the meeting that MPs from his party had decided that they would not join the meeting because it lacked a quorum and because they were against the House Speaker’s decision regarding the scrutiny timeframe.
He was referring to the incident after the House accepted the charter-amendment bill in its first reading and appointed three committees to scrutinise the bill in the second reading.
The Pheu Thai Party proposed that the committees take 15 days to complete their scrutiny, but the Democrats say the process should take 60 days. Before the meeting could come to a resolution, Somsak ordered the meeting closed citing a lack of quorum and set the timeframe at 15 days, as proposed by Pheu Thai, as it meets the number already set according to parliamentary regulations.
Wiratana said since the Wednesday meeting was unlawful as the House speaker had clearly said it lacked quorum, the opposition was thereby proposing that the Parliament resolve the dispute. He added that opposition MPs be given three hours, government MPs five hours and senators one hour to debate, matching the quota set for the charter-change debate, before resolving the issue.
Former Deputy House Speaker Apiwan Wiriyachai said nothing unlawful had occurred on Wednesday and if the opposition believed it had, then they can seek a ruling from the Constitutional Court.
Democrat MP Dr Warong Dechgit-vigrom insisted it was wrong for the Speaker to set a timeframe for the committee especially since the period was under dispute and the meeting lacked a quorum. Wirot cut Warong short saying the House would decide on the issue and ordered that other posts be filled in the committees. It was then that the Democrat MPs walked out.
The same happened in the meeting room of the committee in charge of changing Article 190, which Senator Krich Arthitkaew was chosen to lead.
