NLA chief: MP election bill delay paves way for primary voting
National Legislative Assembly (NLA) president Pornpetch Wichaicholchai on Monday defended the postponement of the enforcement of the MP election bill by 90 days, saying it provided time for political parties to prepare themselves for the new primary voting system.
The charter stipulates that the election must be held within 150 days after the enforcement of the related laws, so the extension of the enforcement of the MP election bill was to give parties enough time to complete what was required before moving ahead to the election, Pornpetch said.
If they had not been given the extra time, that might be used an excuse to waive primary voting within parties, which is expected to pave the way for more democratic and participatory politics.
Pornpetch declined to comment on the Constitution Drafting Commission’s comments against the changes to the grouping of Senate candidates by the NLA’s law-vetting committee.
He said the committee told him that there would not be a problem of collusion or fraud under the changes.
The CDC proposed the grouping of candidates into 20 professional guilds, but the NLA cut the number of groups down to 10.