Open list |system for party-list MPs unique: EC

Somchai said he was not aware that this “open list” system enshrined in the draft of the new constitution was used in any other country.

This system would allow voters some influence on the order in which party-list candidates are elected. This is contrary to the “closed list” system mandated in the previous Constitution, in which the political party’s executives determined the order of its candidates while the general voter had no influence at all on the position of those candidates on the party list.

Somchai voiced his support for the open list, saying it would give more power to the voters, although the calculation of parliamentary seats would be complex. 

He said that in the past, the order of the party-list candidates was decided in accordance with the personal or financial influence of the people involved. 

“Some of the candidates were relatives of or close to the party leader. They were chosen not because of their abilities or qualifications,” he claimed. 

He said he believed that in the next general election political parties would field candidates that were more qualified in light of the adoption of this open-list scheme.

Somchai said the open-list system would create some problems for the Election Commission, particularly involving the vote count and subsequent calculation of parliamentary seats the contesting political parties would get. He said it would take two or three days to complete the vote count and sort out the seat allocation, and not one day as was the case in the past.