Thai Sang Thai will amend charter to prevent another coup: Sita

The current Constitution was written to support dictatorship, Sita told the "Bring Thailand's democracy back after the election" forum at Thammasat University’s Rangsit campus.

He also reiterated the party’s opposition to joining a coalition government led by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha or Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan.

Thai Sang Thai will join the opposition if one of the three P’s – Prayut, Prawit, and Interior Minister Anupong “Pok” Paochinda – is elected prime minister, Sita said, adding: "We will not join a government led by those people."

Sita also said that the next prime minister must be selected from the MPs elected by voters.

"The prime minister must be elected from MPs," he said. “We have already seen that Prayut never joins debates to explain his vision,” Sita added, referring to the fact that the prime minister was not selected from the MPs elected during the last election.

Moreover, Prayut became prime minister and formed a government without sufficient support from MPs, Sita told the forum organised by the advocacy group Internet Law Reform Dialogue (iLaw).

No one is campaigning on the Constitution's pros and cons and if they did they would be arrested, Sita said, citing examples of people arrested over pro-democracy protests.

He said he agreed with iLaw’s three proposals for selecting the next prime minister and forming a government. They are:

• Only MPs should be eligible to be prime minister.
• Political parties with the largest number of MPs in the House of Representatives must have the right to form the government.
• Senators must select a prime minister who is already an MP and has the most support from other MPs, and political parties should not use senators to select a prime minister.