Amnesty bill sails through third reading
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The controversial amnesty bill sailed through the third reading with 310 to 0 votes early Friday morning.
Democrat MPs staged a walkout so no one voted against the bill.
Four red-shirt Pheu Thai MPs abstained despite the party earlier issuing a resolution ordering all MPs to vote for it. The four are Natthawut Saikua, Weng Tojirakarn, Worachai Hema and Khattiya Kattipol.
House Speaker Somsak Kiartsuranon closed the meeting at 4.25am.
The passage of the bill apparently caught the opposition and the government’s opponents off guard as the third reading vote was caught at about 4am, immediately after the last article of the bill was passed in the second reading.
The second reading began Thursday in a slow process apparently because the opposition used the delaying tactic of debating every part of the bill starting from the bill’s title and introduction.
With the lengthy debate, the second reading of Article 3, which seeks to grant blanket amnesty, started at 2.40am.
When the deliberation of Article 3 began, the Democrats tried to protest, saying the meeting should be halted as there was no need to rush to finish the second reading.
But Pheu Thai MP Sunai Jullapogsathorn proposed that the debate should continue, leading to squabbles between the opposition and the Pheu Thai. The meeting was suspected for 10 minutes and resumed when Somsak took charge.
Somsak announced that debate would continue until the second reading was completed.
The second reading of Article 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 took only about an hour.
The House took about 19 hours to complete the second and third readings of the bill.
Chief coalition whip Amnuay Klungpha said the coalition needed to rush the bill through the third reading because the government expected that protesters would besiege Parliament later Friday to prevent MPs from entering the t compound to vote.
Meanwhile, Senate Speaker Nikom Wairatphanich said the Senate would deliberate the bill in the first reading on November 8 or no later than November 11.
