Appeals to charter court on organic laws could delay election: Wissanu
IF A Constitutional Court ruling is sought on whether proposed revisions to the organic laws on MP elections and the Senate structure are constitutional, the next general election may be delayed up to two months, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said yesterday.
He said the current “road map to democracy” did not take into account time for such legal detours.
“That is what we did not expect. We allow time for the tripartite committee to try to settle the differences in their opinion and reach a conclusion within 15 days,” Wissanu said.
The panel consists of members from the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), the NLA committees vetting the laws and the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC), which wrote the bills.
Wissanu, who is in charge of the government’s legal affairs, said yesterday that if there were no additional procedures the two laws were expected to be finalised soon and submitted for royal endorsement in March.
“If the bills get delayed because of appeals to the Constitutional Court, you have to allow an extra month or two [for the court to rule], depending on the difficulty of the case,” he said.
Both laws recently were endorsed by the NLA in the third reading after many changes were made to the original drafts.
Meanwhile, the drafters of the bills have maintained certain points in their original drafts and submitted their objections to the NLA in writing to the revisions today, CDC spokesman Udom Rath-amarit said.
Among the points opposed by the CDC are a revision in the MP election bill that would allow candidates to host entertainment during campaigning, and a proposed extension of the voting time to 7am to 5pm, according to Udom.
In the revised bill on the Senate structure, the drafters disagreed with the reduction of occupational groups of candidates from 20 to 15, and voting among candidates in the same groups, instead of different groups as proposed in the original draft.