No way that House will be dissolved: PM

PRIME Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday there was “no way” Article 44 of the Interim Charter would be used to dissolve Parliament “unless there was trouble”.

Prayut was responding to comments by Deputy Premier Wissanu Krea-ngam, who said the House could face dissolution if it fails to select a premier from lists of candidates drawn up by political parties, but this would not be done by an Article 44 order by the head of the National Council for Peace and Order. The PM said there were other ways to handle such a situation. 

At the weekly press briefing yesterday after the Cabinet meeting, Prayut said Wissanu’s controversial remark was only a caution. The PM said he believed his deputy did not want things to turn out that way. 

However, Prayut did not rule out the possibility of a dissolution. 

“There’s no way it will be dissolved, unless there was trouble. What if it [drags on for] six months and [there is] still no PM? How would you like it?” he said. 

Prayut said conflict may arise again if Parliament cannot select a premier.

Wissanu said last week that the House could be dissolved if MPs could not reach agreement on a new prime minister after the next election, to prevent the process dragging on for too long. 

Critics expressed concern on whether dissolving Parliament was appropriate and if it may create a power vacuum for the current coup-installed regime to retain power. 

However, Wissanu said yesterday it was not unusual to dissolve the House if it faced a “dead-end” and it was in line with the law. The deputy PM, apparently upset with the criticism, denied having said Prayut would use his absolute power under Article 44 to dismiss the House. 

Wissanu explained that he had no intention to send any signal, as some people had speculated. He had noted dissolution last week only in response to some reporters and in a scope of returning power to the people. 

Red-shirt leader Nattawut Saikua said yesterday that the parliament-dissolution card played recently gave the powers-that-be more bargaining power over politicians and the people. “If the acting government sees that there is still unrest and so it needs to dissolve the House, what can we do?” he said. 

With the regime’s legal experts all saying a dissolution is feasible, Nattawut said that the public, who are the true holders of power, could not have any confidence that the representatives they select in the upcoming election would be able to work in the House. 

Chief charter drafter Meechai Ruchupan said on Monday that he believed politicians would eventually reconcile and it was unlikely that a dissolution would occur. He gave the Kukrit administration as an example. Though there was intense conflict at the time, politicians managed to reconcile and form a government, Meechai said. 

Meanwhile, the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) voted yesterday to send the final draft of the new constitution to the prime minister by next Tuesday, CDC spokesman Norachit Sinhaseni said.

Prayut would then send the draft for royal assent and enactment as the new constitution of Thailand. 

Norachit said the CDC would make final changes to the draft in line with the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the intention of the additional question of the charter referendum. The amendments will allow senators to join MPs in requesting the waiver of PM candidate lists and to state that the waiver could be done throughout the first five years after there is a new Parliament, he said.