Premier won't need to be an MP, drafters say
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But candidate will need the backing of lower House Mps : CDC
CHARTER writers yesterday agreed to allow a non-elected MP to become the prime minister, but only via election by the House of Representatives.
“We must leave room in case the country is hit by the same political impasse again,’’ said Amorn Wanichwiwatana, spokesman for the Constitution Drafting Commission.
Apichart Sukhagganond, chairman of the sub-committee on executive structure, had submitted to the CDC his committee’s analysis of the disadvantages and advantages of three executive systems – parliamentary, absolute separation of power, and a mixture of centralisation and absolute separation of power.
The CDC opted for the parliamentary system, with the premier as head of the executive branch. The prime minister can be either an MP or a non-elected individual supported by the House of Representatives.
The CDC believes that a new legal mechanism must be established to ensure that the lower house selects the prime minister. The CDC assigned the committee to look into suitable methods of selecting the prime minister and t submit its study later.
Amorn said the CDC could not rule out a recurrence of the political crisis that paralysed the country before the coup on May 22 of last year.
The new charter would not replicate Article 7 of the 2007 version that left open a legal avenue for a royally appointed prime minister.
The CDC had yet to decide how many MP votes would be needed to win the election for prime minister.
Some CDC members had pressed for both legislative chambers to vote on the prime minister.
Single-ballot electoral system
The CDC also decided to go with a single-ballot electoral system after reviewing the studies on one ballot versus two ballots presented by the committee on legislative structure.
The studies showed that, with a two-ballot system, constituents vote twice –- once for a constituency MP and once for their preferred party, which would determine party-list MPs.
The constituency MP can come from a different party than the preferred party.
This would weaken political parties because there is no link between them and constituency MPs.
Past elections showed that a winning constituency MP received up to 50,000-60,000 votes, but preferred party votes reached only about 10,000 in those constituencies.
Using a single ballot would strengthen the party system because voters would have to compare strengths and weaknesses between constituency MPs and parties.
Political parties must find the best candidates to field in constituencies. Both party-list and MP candidates must be strong.
Managing a single-ballot system is also convenient and efficient as it reduces the number of spoiled ballots. Having two ballots would result in more invalid voting cards in the case where a party fields only constituency MP candidates and not party-list candidates or vice versa. This is because voters tick boxes that have no candidates or parties.
Past elections showed that spoiled ballots number about two million in constituency voting and 1.7 million in party voting.
The single-ballot system needs only seven per polling station, not nine, as they do not have to count two ballots. That would save Bt200 million in personnel expenses.
Adding up to Bt66 million in savings on printing ballots and Bt10 million for ballot boxes and other expenses brings the total to Bt676 million.
Vote counting is also faster and opinion polls show people favour the single ballot system.
