Court rejects plea to disband Democrats

The Constitutional Court yesterday unanimously agreed to reject the petition filed by former senator Ruangkrai Leekijwattana to disband the Democrat Party for its alleged involvement in vetting charter-amendment bills.

The court ruled that the Democrats did not violate the Constitution’s Article 68 as alleged and, hence, Ruangkrai’s request that the court issue an injunction had to be dismissed. 

On Tuesday, Ruangkrai filed a petition calling on the court to disband the Democrat Party because the 11 Democrats who were involved in vetting the charter-change bill were also part of the ad-hoc committee considering the bills in the second reading.

As per Article 68, the Constitutional Court has the right to dissolve any political party that is seen trying to topple the constitutional monarchy or gaining power to rule the country in an unconstitutional manner. 

The court also voted 5:3 to accept the petition filed by Borworn Yasinthorn to rule on whether House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranont and 312 lawmakers had violated Article 68 by depriving people of their right to block amendments to the charter. 

Somsak has called a House-Senate joint meeting for next Thursday to resolve the dispute on how many days should be spent scrutinising the charter-amendment bills.

He said the meeting would not spend very long debating the timeframe issue, and would simply vote on the matter. “If the meeting approves 60 days, we will go with that. Parliamentary regulations clearly stipulate that we take 15 days unless the meeting votes otherwise,’’ he said.

This move comes after the opposition threatened to seek a Constitutional Court ruling on the timetable issue and to file an impeachment motion against Somsak.

Somsak denied having made a legal blunder, adding that parliamentary regulation No 96 stipulates that once an ad-hoc committee is established, it will spend 15 days on deliberations. He added that he adjourned last Wednesday’s parliamentary session because it lacked a quorum, and he has decided to call a meeting next Thursday to let Parliament make a decision on the dispute.

“As for the claim that I fear being removed through impeachment proceedings, I never said I wouldn’t call a House-Senate meeting [to resolve the dispute]. I always call on people to make compromises,’’ he said.

Opposition and Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva backed the plan for the meting. The current parliamentary session, which is reserved for legislation, is scheduled to go into recess next Saturday.