Pheu Thai objects CDC’s ballot proposal
PHEU THAI PARTY has voiced opposition to the Constitution-Drafting Committee’s (CDC) plan to abolish the past voting practice in which all candidates for a party would have the same number of ballots nationwide.
CDC has insisted that each MP candidate will have a number based on the total number of candidates running in that riding. As a result, candidates for a certain party would have different poll numbers on the ballot in different constituencies.
Norachit Singhasenee, the CDC spokesman, said the new system would allow each voter to cast only one ballot, a change from previous systems in which each voter had two ballots, one for the constituency MP and the other for the party-list MP.
As a result, the new system is fair for all the political parties concerned, said Norachit.
Under the new system, there are a total of 500 MPs, consisting of 350 constituency MPs and another 150 party-list MPs.
However, the selection of party-list MPs will be based on the combined percentage of votes from all winning and losing MP candidates fielded by political parties.
As an example, if a party got 40 per cent of the total nationwide votes for constituency MPs, it would get a total of about 200 of the 500 MP seats.
If this party had elected MPs in 180 constituencies, it would automatically get another 20 party-list MPs to bring it up to 200 seats reflecting 40 per cent of the nationwide vote, according to the new system.
However, Pheu Thai party’s secretary-general Phumtham Vejjachai, said all MP candidates should have the same poll number.
This would make it easier for a party to promote its candidates across the country and strengthen the party system, said Phumtham.
He noted that the party and its candidates are not different when primary elections are used to screen MP candidates for the constituencies.