Pheu Thai certain of victory in court verdict on amendment bill
Play
The Pheu Thai Party's legal team yesterday appeared confident that it could defend a charter-amendment bill, despite the Constitutional Court accepting another petition against the planned amendment to Article 68.
Yasothon MP Piraphan Palusuk, a member of the Pheu Thai legal team, said he was not worried by the court’s decision to accept a petition filed by Boworn Yasinthorn and his group against the bill seeking to amend Article 68.
Earlier, the court agreed to conduct a judicial review of a petition against the article filed by Senator Somchai Sawaengkarn.
A group of 312 MPs and senators have proposed an amendment to Article 68 that would require the public to petition the Constitutional Court via the Office of the Attorney-General when seeking a ruling on whether a party is attempting to overthrow the constitutional-monarchy system of government.
Piraphan said the Pheu Thai MPs who sponsored the bill had assigned the legal team to defend the amendment on their behalf.
The team plans to defend the amendment on two grounds. First, it will put to the court that it cannot interfere in parliamentary affairs relating to legal amendments. Second, it will make the case that public’s right to invoke Article 68 will not be restricted – rather, the amendment would make the article clearer.
Meanwhile, chief coalition whip Amnuay Klungpha insisted that Parliament President Somsak Kiartsuranont had not erred in his earlier decision to have three ad hoc panels vet the three amendment bills in 15 days.
He said Somsak made the decision based on parliamentary meeting regulations.
However, Somsak wants the opposition to cooperate on vetting the bill, so he ordered another joint meeting of MPs and senators to be held on April 18 to vote on whether the vetting time should be extended to 60 days as called for by the opposition, Amnuay said.
