Vote on charter should be open, NRC chief says
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NATIONAL Reform Council chairman Thienchay Kiranandana yesterday voiced disapproval of a proposal to call a secret vote on whether the NRC should accept or reject the charter draft.
Thienchay wants the vote to be done openly by each NRC member swiping a voting machine with their ID card but said, ultimately, the decision would rest with the NRC members.
Meanwhile, the Constitution Drafting Committee has started scrutiny of Chapter 3 of the new charter draft in Parliament after eight days of article-by-article deliberation.
CDC spokesman General Lertrat Rattanawanit said the CDC would consider proposals from the NRC to change certain provisions.
The CDC had earlier met and decided to change the party-list system from six regions to one single state.
It has also decided not to allow election candidates to rank the party-list MPs (an open-list system) but will allow party members in the constituencies to decide the lists.
The CDC has increased the number of constituency MPs from 250 to 300 and reduced the number of party-list MPs from 200 to 150.
Lertrat said the system would not be confusing to voters because the Election Commission would decide how many MPs from each party win seats. The composition of the Senate would be deliberated tomorrow, Lertrat said, adding that the CDC had not decided on whether senators should be elected or selected but had earlier determined the roles and responsibilities of senators.
The charter drafters also resolved that senators should not have the power to sponsor bills – and no power to screen the list of members of Cabinet.
The CDC aims to complete scrutiny of the charter draft by July 28.
Lertrat said amendment of the charter draft from Article 1 to 95 had received good feedback from various sectors. He said he felt the CDC had upheld the country’s interests in its amendment of the charter and it was possible the number of articles would drop by 20 from the total of 315.
