Constitutional Court wants more documents in Prayut’s tenure case
The Constitutional Court on Thursday ordered the House Secretariat to send the minutes of a Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) meeting to the court and scheduled another meeting on Wednesday in the case of the prime minister’s tenure.
The court held a special meeting on Thursday to decide whether written statements submitted by three defence witnesses would be sufficient for deliberation of a petition submitted by opposition MPs.
The petition asked the court to rule whether General Prayut Chan-o-cha’s tenure as the prime minister expired on August 24. The court accepted the petition for review on August 24 and suspended Prayut from his duty as premier. It sought statements from Prayut, Meechai Ruchuphan, chairman of the now-defunct CDC, and Pakorn Nilprapun, former secretary of the CDC.
After the meeting at 10am, the court announced that it wanted the minutes of the CDC’s 501st meeting, which was held on September 11, 2018.
The court reasoned that it wanted to see the part which showed that the meeting ratified the minutes of the CDC’s 500th meeting that was held on September 7 that year.
The court demanded to see the minutes of the 501st CDC meeting because Meechai stated in writing to the court that his views expressed during the 500th meeting had been incompletely circulated by the side that argued Prayut’s term would end on August 24.
In Meechai’s statement to the court, he said the premiership of Prayut should be counted from April 6, 2017, when the current Constitution was promulgated.
Earlier, Prayut’s opponents circulated the minutes of the 500th meeting to quote Meechai as saying that Prayut’s premiership before the promulgation of the charter would be counted.
Meechai said in his statement to the court that the meeting's 500th minutes have not yet been verified and endorsed by the CDC and his view in the 500th minutes was only summarised by the official who jotted down the minutes.
Meechai told the court the correct version of the 500th minutes would be stated in the 501st minutes after endorsement by the CDC.
The Constitutional Court on Thursday therefore ordered the Secretariat of the House of Representatives to submit the 501st minutes of the CDC meeting to the court by Tuesday so it could be considered during a court meeting on Wednesday, September 14.
