Top politicians believe poll will be held on time

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and Bhum Jai Thai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul said they did not think there would be further delays, as had been feared by some critics of the National Council for Peace and Order.
Abhisit said that even if a Constitutional Court verdict were sought on the law on MP elections or the law on the Senate selection, he believed the court would make its ruling in time.
“I can’t say there will be no impact at all. But we can expect a slight impact,” he said. “I believe the next election will take place in February 2019.”
Anutin said he was also convinced that the election would take place as promised by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha recently.
“Whatever happens between now and February 2019, we at Bhum Jai Thai Party believe there will be an election in February 2019,” he said.
Faced with mounting pressure at home and internationally, Prayut late last month said the general election would be held “no later than” February next year. He made the latest promise after repeated delays.
Along with Pheu Thai Party’s key figure Chaturon Chaisang, Abhisit and Anutin yesterday took part in a panel discussion on “The Future of Thai Politics: Election Ahead”. The event was organised as part of the CLSA Asean Forum 2018 at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel.
Chaturon told the panel discussion that Pheu Thai would never support Prayut’s return as government head after the next election.
“Pheu Thai will not support an outsider prime minister and will not form a government with a prime minister who is not elected,” he said. 
The veteran politician said he was not surprised that many new political parties promised to back the NCPO chief. He added, however, that he did not think the new parties would have the potential to ensure Prayut’s return to power.
“If General Prayut really wants to come back as prime minister, he needs to find a special legal channel or do something to weaken the existing political parties. That’s rather complex. Let’s wait and see,” Chaturon said.
Abhisit was non-committal when asked if his party would join forces with Pheu Thai and Bhum Jai Thai in preventing a non-elected outsider from becoming the next prime minister. He said political parties had their own standpoint that may differ from one another. 
Anutin said that he had no issue with an outsider prime minister but added that the election result would be a key factor in the matter.
Abhisit was also asked to comment on the possibility of a Democrat-Pheu Thai alliance after the election. The Democrat leader said that his party would not work with Pheu Thai as long as it remained under the influence of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
“We have fought against the Thaksin regime for the last two decades. So it’s impossible that the Democrat Party would do something that goes against our principles,” Abhisit said.

Trip to Constitutional Court
Meanwhile, although the two last organic laws necessary for the next election have already cleared the hurdle of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), there is still the possibility that some NLA members may seek a Constitutional Court verdict on whether the Senate selection bill is constitutional. A group of lawmakers is set to decide next week on how they will proceed.
The bill finally cleared the NLA on Thursday, alongside the MP election bill. That final passage was previously delayed after the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) disagreed with stipulations added by the NLA to reduce the Senate groups from the original 20 down to 10, and to require that senator candidates would come from professional associations.
The issue led to a joint committee with members of the two bodies in disagreement. 
In the end, the bill was revised to keep the CDC’s original stipulation but also put the controversial clauses about the grouping and origin of the candidates in the provisional clauses.
CDC chairman Meechai Ruchupan was concerned that it would be unconstitutional to have two kinds of senator candidates – those running independently and those representing a professional association. The Constitution only stated that senator candidates should be independent, the CDC argued. 
Meechai reportedly recommended that the NLA seek the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the issue.
A source from within the NLA said legislators had agreed.
However, NLA member Manut Wattanakomen said that although he had argued that some clauses in the controversial bill could be unconstitutional, he had no intention of taking the case to the Constitutional Court. He said he accepted the decision agreed by majority of the Assembly.
Manut also said he believed the NLA would not do so as it would inevitably affect the road map to the election.
Another NLA member, Jate Siratharanon, said the assembly had never discussed petitioning the Constitutional Court. But since Meechai had raised the issue, the NLA whip would consider the issue next week, he said.
Jate said he did not personally think the bill needed the court ruling.
According to the charter, one-tenth of the NLA members could petition the Constitutional Court over the organic bills.
If the Senate selection bill is brought to the Court, the election could be further delayed beyond February of next year.