Murmurs as charter draft leans toward coalition govts

NRC members are also making suggestions for revisions to the draft, and the CDC will decide later whether to follow the suggested changes.

Judging from public reaction, this constitutional draft seems not to be widely acceptable. Opposition to different clauses of the charter is even stronger than with the previous post-coup constitution of 2007. And the voice of discontent appears to be getting louder.

During their seven-day debate on the charter draft, members of the NRC, which has the power to decide whether to pass the draft, focused on the issues involving the political structure. Members of the NRC’s political reform committee have voiced their opposition to certain clauses in the electoral system, the appointment of senators and the reintroduction of a non-MP prime minister.

Academic Sombat Thamrongthanyawong, who chairs the NRC’s political reform committee, called the new electoral system “regressive”. It is based on Germany’s electoral system with the main goal of preventing a complete majority in the House of Representatives.

It seems that the new electoral system is aimed at encouraging the formation of a coalition government, in the hope that the smaller partners may “balance against” the largest coalition party. In fact, we have had such coalition governments in the past, and they were mostly unstable due to too much bargaining among the many coalition parties.

Many constitution drafters are aware of this lesson from the past but they simply ignore it in the hope that coalition governments will help end the problem of frequent conflicts between the country’s two largest political parties.

NRC members question the clauses that give a lot of power to unelected senators, although they are not true representatives of the people.

The provision that allows non-MPs to become prime minister has also prompted criticism. Many people were unsure that the “outsider PM” would assume power only in case of crisis, as claimed by the constitution drafters. Critics were afraid that due to this provision, an unelected prime minister might be appointed after the next general election, although there was no sign of crisis. Constitution drafters say this provision is one of the principles they will not revise.

Political parties also question those clauses in the constitutional draft. They are afraid that political parties will be weakened, with reduced roles, while political groups recognised under the new charter will become stronger.

Politicians disagree with “open list” voting in the new electoral system that allows voters to rearrange the order of party-list candidates previously determined by the political parties. 

Their standpoint is described by constitution drafters as an attempt to protect their own interests. Borwornsak Uwanno, the chief charter writer, once said the new constitution was written for all 65 million Thais, and not just 5,000 politicians.

Courts of law are the latest group to voice disagreement with certain clauses in the constitutional draft that would result in changes to existing court practices.

Let’s wait and see how the constitution drafters will deal with this mounting opposition against their charter draft. 

It will be interesting to see if they will eventually manage to win public acceptance for the final draft.