Anti-fraud measure for Senate election changes, draws fire
The law vetting committee has decided to cut down the number of professional groups for the senate election from 20 to 15, and removed a cross-selection approach intended to prevent conspiracy and fraud and replaced it with a new method.
But the new approach is being questioned by the Constitutional Drafting Commission. They worry that removal of the cross-selection process would allow fraud during the senate selection process.
Admiral Tharathorn Kajitsuwan, the committee’s spokesperson, said a majority of committee members has agreed to reduce the group number by merging some groups together.
It also agreed to remove the cross-selection process and allow selections from within groups to recruit senator candidates from a district level up to the national level.
The committee proposed a new method to detect fraud. All candidates within each group would elect 13 finalists from within that group. If a group includes candidates that gain no more than 10 per cent of votes for all of the candidates (3 in 10 candidates for example), conspiracy and fraud would be considered to have taken place.
The committee expects to submit the amended senate bill to the National Legislative Assembly by January 26, said Tharathorn.
CDC spokesperson Nora Chit Sinhaseni, said the Commission had no problem with the reduction in the number of professional groups from 20 to 15, but was concerned about the removal of the cross-selection.
In its view, the cross-selection proposed by the CDC is still the best means to prevent fraud, he said.
Deputy PM Wissanu Krea-ngam, meanwhile, urged all concerned parties to be cautious when dealing with the issue, suggesting them to study carefully what addressed in the charter. He said the provisional chapter in regard to the senate would have finished in the next five years, at which point the new proposals and their effects would be in full force and for the long term, if passed.