Neutrality of Constitutional Court judges raised by NLC vote, warns party director
The Chartthai Pattana Party’s director Nikorn Chamnong has expressed concern about the NLC’s amended approval of the new Constitutional Court organic bill, which would see all the judges maintained in the office rather than replaced.
Nikorn said the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) had drafted the bill in line with the constitution, which requires current judges to meet new qualifications in order to stay in the office, but the National Legislative Assembly amended the draft, allowing all of them to stay on. Four of the judged have unexpired terms, while the terms have expired for the remaining five, yet all would remain under the NLA amendment until the new House convenes.
Nikorn said the current judges are viewed as having been involved in past political conflict although nobody knows what the extent of the truth of that view. A full reset of the court would therefore be the best choice to get beyond the allegation, he said. Because the NLA decided otherwise, questions about the neutrality of judges would remain in people’s minds and conflict would likely continue.
“What we need is an institution which is non-partisan. But if it’s not, where should we move forward in the future? This is something that we are worried about,” said Nikorn, adding he would like the issue to be publicly discussed for the public to ponder in case there are still ways to fix its.
The bill was passed by the NLA on Thursday, and is pending review by concerned agencies including the CDC within 10 days before it is finalised and promulgated.