Democrats ready to back special parliamentary session to discuss protests

He said that to ask the members of government parties to attend the session, the opposition parties first need to send out an invitation. However, he said that no petition has been sent to his party or Parliament.

“To convene the session, one-third of Parliament members need to show their intention to attend,” he added.
He said that it would also be agreeable to convene a Parliament session on amending the Constitution, as a way to resolve the intensifying protests.
Meanwhile, speaking before attending a special Cabinet meeting on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul refused to express an opinion about convening an extraordinary session of Parliament.

On Thursday, six opposition parties called on the government to immediately lift the state of emergency imposed in Bangkok, saying it violated basic civil rights.
The opposition leaders said there were no legal reasons to justify emergency rule. They also called for an emergency session of Parliament to resolve the conflict by parliamentary means.
Support for an extraordinary session came from former minister Surapong Suebwonglee, co-founder of CARE group. In a post on his Facebook page on Thursday, Surapong asked MPs to send a signed petition to House Speaker Chuan Leekpai for opening the session.
He added that total opposition MPs were 212, and needed only 35 government party MPs for convening the session.

Total Parliament member were 738 and one-third of them were 246.