The EC seems to be the main target of the proposed changes, since it will be tasked with organising the poll. The National Reform Steering Assembly’s political reform committee has proposed that certain other state agencies, including the Interior Ministry, should help the EC in this task, in order to help ensure transparency and prevent fraud.

Meechai Ruchupan, chairman of the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC), appears to agree with the NRSA panel that the EC lacks efficiency. He suggested that the election commissioners need to work proactively rather than defensively, as was the case in the past.

“Like the previous constitution, the draft charter that was approved in the referendum requires that the EC oversee elections. In practice, the EC is allowed to assign other state agencies to help. In the past, the EC did all the work by itself, including issuing the regulations and holding elections. That was why the previous general election ran into problems,” Meechai said.

“The CDC wants the EC to work proactively. They should not just wait for complaints. We want the EC to look for possible acts of fraud and take action immediately,” he said.

The chief constitution drafter has disclosed that a CDC working group is examining India’s election commission for lessons on efficiency. He pointed out that the Indian commission has only about 100 election supervisors, in addition to one election commissioner, for a country with the population of over 1 billion.

“We will study and determine how we can apply the Indian format to Thailand,” Meechai said.

The goal is to organise elections at all levels with maximum efficiency and a minimum number of state officials involved.

General Nakorn Sukprasert, an NRSA member and former member of the now-defunct Constitution Drafting Committee that was succeeded by the CDC, suggested the organic law should empower the EC to engage the help of other state agencies in organising elections whenever needed. He also proposed that, to ensure transparency, the new law should specify punishment for any election official deemed failing in the task of ensuring a free and fair election.

The proposals appear aimed at boosting the efficiency of the election process. But they are also expected to introduce mechanisms to screen politicians seeking election to Parliament. For advocates, those mechanisms would help ensure that the 2014 military coup and subsequent reform push of the National Council for Peace and Order is not “wasted”.

If polls for MPs as well as local administrators and councillors can be made free and fair, with fraud a thing of the past, those across all sectors – and not just the same old group of politicians – will be encouraged to contest elections with confidence in a genuinely democratic process.

Such an election process would draw wide acceptance from both Thai society and the wider world community, benefiting our politics and the country as a whole.

Khanittha@nationgroup.com