CDC begins scrutiny of draft charter today to meet August deadline
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CONSTITUTION Drafting Committee spokesman General Lertrat Ratanavanich said the CDC did not believe it had lost face for having to remove 10 contentious issues and change more than 100 articles of the charter draft.
“We did not change the principles or the spirit of the draft. We still uphold a strong political sector, strong civic movement and the rule of law.
“We maintain provisions on bridging disparity and suppressing corruption. Some legislation we propose is legal innovation and since there is opposition, we do not mind removing them,” he said.
The CDC was pondering options on amending the charter draft’s Chapter 4 on reform and reconciliation: maintain the original version or cut it by half and put details in the charter’s organic laws.
“It is possible that we’ll restructure the charter but maintain reform and reconciliation principles and the five-year reform road map,’’ he said.
Lertrat said the CDC had not decided whether to remove the power of the reform and reconciliation panel to sponsor amnesty bills, which had met with strong criticism. It also still had to decide whether to merge the strategic reform committee with the reconciliation panel as suggested by the Cabinet.
The CDC will change the name of the Reform Movement Council to prevent confusion with another reform panel that is stipulated in the 2014 provisional charter.
CDC drafting panel spokeswoman Supattara Nakapiew said the committee would start amending the charter draft article by article today with the goal of amending 14 per day and would finish by August 22. The remaining time would be used in reviewing the draft.
She said the charter scrutiny by article was expected to go smoothly without delay since the CDC had already discussed and decided on several contentious issues.
It has decided to remove “political groups” from all articles in the charter draft, putting the open list system in the provisional clause, increasing the number of constituency MPs from 250 to 300 and reducing party-list MPs from 200 to 150.
The CDC has also decided against separating party-list areas into six electoral zones, leaving only one single zone across the country.
She said the charter drafters would only “touch up” the wording of some articles where no one has sought amendment.
The CDC has been left with a few contentious issues such as the composition of the Senate, the reform and reconciliation panel, and some aspects of Articles 181 and 182. It will reach a conclusion during the article-by-article scrutiny of the draft, she said.
