Abhisit insists on Somsak chairing session
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Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva called on Parliament President Somsak Kiatsuranont to solely chair the HouseSenate joint meeting.
He said Somsak, also House Speaker, should be the only chairman in such meetings, otherwise, his deputy and Senate Speaker Nikom Wairat-panij would keep changing the debate agreements during the meetings.
The second choice, Abhisit said, would follow the tradition in the past that the deputy parliament president would sit beside the president and take over only when the president goes to the toilet.
The other choice proposed by Abhisit was that agreements are made clear each time before Nikom begins work as the meeting chairman.
Somsak said he would not be able to accept Abhisit’s proposal because he was human, not a robot. Lawmakers could avoid problems if all of them took parliamentary regulations seriously.
The opposition has filed a petition to impeach Nikom for abruptly closing a parliamentary session and calling votes but not letting MPs to speak.
Opposition chief whip Jurin Laksanawisit submitted a letter of protest to deputy Senate Speaker Anan Ariyachaipanich with the notice to be sent to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to seek Nikom’s impeachment. The petition was signed by 141 Democrat MPs.
Anan said the signatures supporting the impeachment request would be verified, and that should be completed before September 20. The petition would then be forwarded to the NACC.
Jurin said Nikom abused his power by closing a parliamentary session on Wednesday night and refused to allow many Democrat MPs to deliberate on charter amendment in relation to the qualification of senators. Nikom’s action may have violated Section 122 of the Constitution because he abruptly ended debate by opposition MPs.
Nikom said he was not afraid of impeachment as he had done his best. “Let the investigators do their job. I will not interfere. I want to go back home anyway,” he said.
Government chief whip Aumnuay Khlangpha said the government whip decided to run a meeting from the House-Senate joint session on charter change in session 6 today as well as on Tuesday and Wednesday. He said the opposition could debate but they should outline how long they want to debate this charter amendment.
