Opposition stages tactical walkout to prevent the demise of its draft

Deputy House Speaker Padipat Suntiphada, who chaired the meeting, adjourned the meeting after the initial results of the voting on the draft regulation of the opposition Move Forward Party showed that the present MPs did not make a quorum of a simple majority of members of the House.

The House was deliberating a new draft meeting regulation for the House of Representatives.

The House voted 223:1 to reject the draft meeting regulation proposed by Move Forward party-list MP Parit Wacharasindhu, but Padipat, a former Move Forward MP, ruled that the House did not have the required quorum, which annulled the voting results. Voting will now be held at a later meeting.

Padipat was elected deputy House speaker while the Move Forward, which emerged as the largest party after the general election, was still trying to form a coalition government.

After Move Forward decided to sit in the opposition, Padipat refused to relinquish the post of deputy speaker, prompting the party to “expel” him so that the Move Forward leader could assume the post of the opposition leader. Padipat joined the Fair Party, a small opposition party, in early October.

The draft meeting regulation is seen as favouring the opposition at the cost of the government.

Among other things, it would empower the opposition to sponsor a bill that was financially related without endorsement of the prime minister as required currently.

The draft would also require the prime minister to answer questions of the opposition leader or five opposition MPs per week.

It would also seek more quota for the opposition in chairing key House panels , including the House committee on corruption prevention, the House committee on budget monitoring and House committee on parliamentary affairs.

The meeting on Wednesday started with the debate on the draft, during which several ruling coalition MPs opposed it.

Before the House was about to vote on the draft, Move Forward party-list MP Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut proposed the suspension of the vote and proposed that the draft be sent first to the House committee for parliamentary affairs for consideration.

But Saran Timsuwan, Pheu Thai MP and a coalition whip, told the meeting that the coalition whips had resolved against sending the draft to the House committee on parliamentary affairs.

A vote was called to end the dispute and the House voted 223 to 151 to not send the draft to the House committee on parliamentary affairs.

Padipat, who chaired the meeting, checked the quorum before the voting on the draft, and found 332 MPs were present.

But when voting took place, only 224 votes were cast – 223 for and one against the draft.

The opposition then asked Padipat to annul the results on grounds that the meeting did not have the quorum.