THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

No panel with ‘absolute power’

No panel with ‘absolute power’

THE CONSTITUTION draft will not include a panel endowed with “extraordinary power” to steer the country through crises, as existing mechanisms and bodies are sufficient, said Chartchai Na Chiangmai, a Constitution Drafting Commission spokesman.

The idea of a crisis panel with absolute power was borrowed from Article 16 of the French constitution, which gives the country’s president supreme power during critical times. 
A similar clause had been included in the previous unsuccessful charter draft written by Borwornsak Uwanno’s panel.
Speaking after his daily press briefing yesterday, Chartchai said the situation facing Thailand was not as critical as the one that once confronted France, which was in a post-war period when the stipulation appeared in its constitution.
“We’ve figured that problems facing this country are rooted in agencies not doing their jobs right,” he said. “So we’ve been thinking that we’ll just get them to [do their tasks] properly.”
He also said no panel would be set up to facilitate independent agencies transiting from the old system to the new system, despite the fact they would face significant changes under the new charter, including those relating to service terms and qualifications. 
Instead, drafters would try to put all the necessary arrangements in the “Transitory Provision” chapter that would be deliberated on and written next week, Chartchai explained.
The drafters are reviewing the completed draft. Yesterday, they looked at the “National Assembly” chapter, with most parts remaining the same, including the disqualification of political office holders and civil servants found guilty of malpractice.
Chartchai did not confirm whether former prime ministers Abhisit Vejjajiva and Yingluck Shinawatra would be disqualified. 
He said the CDC was tasked with only setting the ground rules and never discussed individuals in relation to disqualification. The matter had to be interpreted and decided on by the Election Commission.
In response to a plan by politicians to campaign against the draft, Chartchai said the CDC would work harder to boost the public’s understanding of the charter.
He affirmed that the panel had discussed the politicians’ attempt to shoot down the draft, adding: “This is like they’re telling us to work harder both in terms of heeding opinions and explaining [controversial] points, because now people might not understand the draft well enough.
“So we’re going to make clear to them [people] the benefits. For example, for the single-ballot system, we’re going to explain how it’s not limiting their rights, what the weaknesses of the old system were, and how this is better,” the spokesman said.
He said the drafters would also make it clear in a new chapter that the Constitutional Court had not been given more power, as it already had all the power it needed as the guardian of the constitution. Any constitutional disputes should be handled by the Constitutional Court, he said.
The first completed draft is scheduled to be finished and published next week. Relevant bodies will then have two weeks to submit official comments to the drafting panel before it provides the final touches to the document. 
A national referendum on the constitution is slated to be held at the end of July.
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