NRC panels to shortlist candidates this week
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National Reform Council selection committees in the local administration category will choose 50 candidates from 400 applicants, General Anupong Paochinda said yesterday.
Anupong said the committees would present their list to the National Council for Peace and Order on Thursday.
He said the 50 candidates would be selected from various academic sectors, together with civil servants from ministries and at local levels.
Election Commission (EC) secretary-general Puchong Nutrawong said the NRC selection committees working on 11 categories would pick 50 candidates each from different fields and regions of the country to ensure diversity.
All NRC selection committees except the political sector met yesterday to select their candidates. But Puchong said several selection committees might need more time to finalise their list.
He said the NRC selection committees in the provinces were expected to choose their candidates this week, except for the Bangkok committee which met yesterday to begin its selection.
Puchong said the EC was checking the background of about 30 people who may not qualify as NRC candidates. Five candidates have been deprived of their political rights, some had been declared bankrupt, and some have a racial issue.
National Legislative Assembly chairman Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, who also serves as chairman of the NRC panel on law and justice, said the 11 NRC selection committees would select 50 candidates each to present to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), which would select 173 from the 550. With selected provincial members, members of the Reform Council would total 250.
The NCPO may take about ten days to select the candidates and would seek royal endorsement for them at the beginning of October.
Pornpetch denied media speculation that there had been lobbying for certain candidates to secure NRC seats. He insisted that all candidates would be selected on merit – their competency and knowledge.
