Cabinet green-lights charter rewrite referendums, Senate election decree
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a plan to hold three public referendums on rewriting the charter and gave the green light to a draft decree on electing senators.
Speaking to reporters after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said his Cabinet had approved the draft decree on the Senate election as proposed by the Election Commission. The decree will go into effect right after it is published in the Royal Gazette.
Srettha said the draft sets the candidacy registration date at May 13. The Senate election will be held in three levels of peer voting among candidates, who will represent 20 professional groups.
The election at the district level will be held on June 9, provincial level on June 16 and national level on June 26, the premier said, adding that the results will be announced on July 2.
The panel proposed three referendums and the amendment of a related act, Srettha said without elaborating.
However, Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who is also deputy PM, said on Monday that the first of the three referendums would be held in August after the Cabinet approved the plan on Tuesday. Phumtham chairs the special panel studying the referendum process for rewriting the charter. He said in the first referendum, voters would be asked if they wanted the charter to be amended except for Chapters 1 and 2.
Chapter 1 states that Thailand is a single undivided kingdom under a constitutional monarchy, and Chapter 2 stipulates provisions about the King’s prerogatives.
