The recommendations will be further submitted to the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) as the NLA’s formal recommendations following yesterday’s endorsement.

Changes were proposed for key five major points. The subcommittee had proposed that an electoral system should be based on a two-ballot system, rather than the CDC’s single-ballot system, to reflect voters’ true intentions while preventing possible widespread vote-buying, Klanarong Chantik, the subcommittee’s vice chair said.

The constituency should be based on three constituent winners, rather than one, so that the contesting field is expanded large enough to prevent political influence and dominance of an election.

The subcommittee also preferred a mixed member proportional vote counting, under which each party’s popular votes are used to calculate the total number of House of Representatives (MP) that a party can get, as it better reflects a party popularity than a constituency-based vote counting system proposed under the mixed member apportionment developed by the CDC.

Secondly, the subcommittee viewed that an indirect election of senators as proposed by the CDC would still allow possible vote buying, and a crisscrossing election among different groups would undermine potential candidates’ opportunities to win in an election, as they would not be known to representatives from different groups.

So, it had proposed that all senators should come from a total selection to maintain checks and balances of power with the Lower House, and prevent political interference. It should also have impeachment authority, it said.

Thirdly, the subcommittee disagreed with the idea to have a list of three prime ministerial candidates in advance of an election, as those failing to win an MP position could become a weak point when being proposed to take the prime minister’s seat.

The subcommittee has proposed that a certain mechanism to solve a crisis should be in place, but it must be parliamentary-based. It should be equipped with authority to call for all heads of key agencies including the Army to meet and solve a crisis together, it said.

And lastly, the subcommittee proposed changes for some other points concerning rights and freedoms, to empowerment of public scrutiny against the toppling of democracy including a direct complaint filing to the Constitutional Court.

In addition, it has proposed that a long-term strategic plan should be firmly addressed in the charter draft, along with reform plans, which should be separated and placed under another key chapter in the charter.

The CDC should develop all necessary organic laws within the time given, it noted.