Overwhelming House backing for motion asking Cabinet to hold referendum on charter amendments
The House of Representatives on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to ask the Cabinet to hold a public referendum on whether the current Constitution, dubbed a half-baked democratic charter, should be amended.
During a meeting chaired by House Speaker Chuan Leekpai, the House took up a motion sponsored by MPs Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut (Move Forward-Bangkok) and Jullaphan Amornvivat (Pheu Thai-Chiang Mai) for reconsideration.
The motion, which proposed the referendum, was suspended from deliberations on September 15 because the House lacked quorum.
A total of 331 MPs inserted their electronic ID cards to report their presence before the vote and 323 of them voted “Yes” and none voted “No”. One MP abstained while seven others did not cast either a Yes, a No, or an abstention vote.
The motion is yet to be sent to the Senate for deliberation under the public referendum act. The act requires that any issue sent for a public referendum must be endorsed by both chambers.
