EC members to stay until new election team picked

ALL FIVE members of the Election Commission plan to serve until their last day in office and won’t resign till replaced by new commissioners later this year, EC member Somchai Srisutthiyakorn said yesterday.
Somchai said he did not think any of the Election Commissioners would feel slighted over the likelihood that all of them would be replaced ahead of the next general election.
That was proposed by the National Legislative Assembly panel vetting the organic law on the Election Commission, which is required under the new Constitution for the next general election. 
“All the current EC members will perform our duties strongly, and to the best of our ability, until the last day in office. This is a rule and we have to follow it,” Somchai said.
But he was unhappy with the NLA panel’s argument that future EC members would have more power under the new law so highly qualified people would be needed to do the job. 
“Many of the current EC members meet the qualification requirements. Why do all of us have to go? I don’t think the argument is sufficient. The NLA committee has to explain to the public what the real reason is,” he said.
However, Somchai expected the NLA to agree with its panel when voting on the bill next Friday. 
During their remaining time in office, he said EC members would focus on vital work to prepare for the next election before handing things over to their successors.
“I can assure you that none of the EC members will feel so slighted that they quit while serving as caretakers. Doing so will bring more problems rather than solving them. There will be a lack of quorum when having meetings,” he said.
Somchai was speaking at the side of a seminar held by the EC at a hotel in Phetchaburi’s Cha-am district. The event was attended by officials from the election agency.
He said that after leaving the EC he would return to the People’s Network for Election (PNET) and resume work monitoring elections. PNET would work with the future EC members to ensure that elections would be free and fair.
Somchai said he did not think replacing the current EC members would adversely affect the next election. “The new set of election commissioners will be in office around October. So they will have about a year preparing for the |election,” he said.