Meanwhile, the fate of the plan to reconstitute the EC, which will result in the dismissal of the current five-member panel, remains undecided.

EC deputy secretary-general Phumpitak Kongkaew said at a press briefing yesterday that the meeting had not looked into all the details on their possible dismissal. He said the agency had received the complete draft law from the NLA only in the afternoon. The EC disagreed with the NLA on Articles 26 and 27, which it believed would violate the new Constitution.

Article 224 of the Constitution allows an individual member to call off an election in some area or nationwide if irregularities were found. However, Article 26 of the organic law requires that the case be considered in an EC meeting in order to cancel the poll.

Article 224 also authorises the agency to organise all Lower House and Senate elections, and referendum as well as polling in local areas. However, Article 27 of the NLA-passed organic law assigns the task of holding local administration elections to governmental agencies under the EC’s watch.

The EC viewed these rules as violating the spirit of the Constitution. They would raise these issues with the NLA on June 24.

No decision on EC reconstitution

The move would result in the setting up of a joint committee consisting of the EC, the NLA, and the Constitution Drafting Commission. The panel would discuss within 15 days whether or not to amend the draft law as proposed by the EC before sending it back to the NLA for reconsideration. The EC had not reached an agreement on the issue of reconstituting the agency and would consider the matter on another occasion, Phumpitak said.

However, an informed source revealed that the EC had two different views on the matter. One view considered the stipulation to dismiss all current members as unconstitutional and believed those who were qualified as per the new Constitution should be able to retain their posts.

The other view considers it legislation, which the commissioners should abide by, and it was not an infringement of rights, the source explained.

Despite difficulties in the legislation, Deputy Premier Wissanu Krea-ngam assured that the road map to democracy would not be affected.

The whole process would take no longer than 30 days to reach a conclusion, the deputy PM said.

In a related development, the NLA today will deliberate on the organic law on the political parties. Primary voting would be among new proposals to be discussed, according to NLA’s law vetting committee.

Yutthana Thapcharoen, the committee’s spokesperson, said the NLA would deliberate the draft bill in its second and third readings.

Among the changes is the introduction of a primary voting system, under which party branch members have the right to propose candidates to be chosen as party MP candidates.

Listed MP candidates, meanwhile, must be jointly considered at party branches.