Withaya said the NRSA’s Political Reform committee chairman Seree Suwanpanont would conduct the questioning.

The questions to be asked were as follows: The charter draft stipulated that the NRSA continues to be in office for one more year after the charter takes effect. What are the agency’s roles during the one-year period? The committee felt the draft was not clear when it stipulated that MPs are banned from deliberating on a budget for any project.

The committee wanted clarification about criticism that rights and liberty of Thais are reduced under the draft and will the agency have the chance to discuss any other issues with the CDC again?

Meanwhile NRSA’s political reform committee spokesman Wanchai Sornsiri said the committee met to discuss the first version of the charter draft and found that the content in general was acceptable but there were some flaws that needed improvement as follows:

The mixed-proportional election system that gives voters only a single paper ballot to cast their vote instead of two paper ballots to differentiate between the constituency and the party list. The committee believed that such a move would not reflect the wishes of the voters, as voters may like the MP candidate but may not like the candidate’s party.

A single-member constituency enables vote buying to be carried out more easily, as they can buy one vote and get both a constituency and a party list. Besides central and local governments can interfere with or influence smaller constituencies. The committee also suggested that a constituency MP election system be adopted.

Wanchai said the committee also disapproved of the indirect election of senators by 20 professional groups citing the move can lead to vote rigging or collusion.

The charter draft failed to provide a mechanism for public participation in checks and balances and in politics.

The draft gave too much power to the Constitutional Court such as to disqualify politicians over unethical practices. “This makes the court the fifth power apart from the government, the court, Parliament and independent agencies,” he said.

The committee also disapproved of the move to have political parties declare PM candidates before an election as it believed this was unnecessary as Parliament can carry out this selection.

The move to make it tough to amend the charter may lead to a political crisis, he said.

He said the committee would ask the NRSA on February 8-9 to make these suggestions report on the draft reviews and to be presented to the CDC.

“If the CDC review the charter draft, there is a chance it would be accepted in the plebiscite, otherwise it would be rejected,” he said.