The environment reform plan has submitted to the government, which would then be synthesized with the national strategy.

According to Assoc-Professor Khwanchai Duangsathaporn, a member of the committee’s land resources reform sector, the committee decided to push the issue as part of the structural reform of forest-related organisations.

Khwanchai said the committee took the view that there must be a sustainable and long-term system to ensure social security for forest rangers, who lack such support compared to employees of other state authorities.

Some new policies and legal mechanisms should be put in place to facilitate the matter over the next two years, Khwanchai noted.

Meanwhile, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry and the National Reform Steering Assembly have also been working on amendments to existing laws. These include a change to the National Parks Act to allow income raised by national parks to be divided up and partly contributed to a social security scheme for rangers.

“The ultimate goal for the forest reform sub plan is to stop the current massive forest encroachment, and the group of people doing this job are the forest rangers, amid high risk of injury and loss of life,” Khwanchai said.

“Their job is risky, but compared with other state authorities, they significantly lack social security support. Some even have no official positions, but are recruited under temporary contracts.”

“Don’t be scared of the NCPO [National Council for Peace and Order],” Prayut said while scratching “Thepprathanporn”, an award-winning yellow-bodied, white-tailed cock. “The NCPO won’t be hard on you.”

As part of series of field visits, Prayut spent the year-end week in Phitsanulok and Sukhothai to observe development projects in the country’s northern region. He will also chair a mobile Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

On Monday, he was simply content with talking to the cock, along with some local people, and also seemingly issuing a new order about his own surname.

“From now on, just call me ‘Prayut Chan-som-sa’,” he said, adapting his name to play on the word Som Sa, which describe the bitter orange plants that grow in the province.

Thanks to its medicinal effects, bitter orange is popular among local industries and processed into several products. The bitter orange industry in Phitsanulok is also important in terms of promoting small and medium-sized enterprises.

This followed its request for confirmation from the Supreme Court, which selected two of its commissioners from its judges nationwide, that the court’s selection procedures on the new commissioners was in line with the Election Commission law.

The NLA had sent a letter to the Supreme Court over a week ago, after some NLA members, including Wallop Tang-kananurak, observed that the selection of the two commissioners by the court was being questioned by the public.

So, they suggested that the NLA contact the court and ask it to confirm its procedures first.

The Supreme Court, as required by the new EC law, was obliged to select two EC commissioners out of seven. It selected one commissioner, Chatchai Chanpraisri, who is Justice Court chief, on November 17, before picking Pakorn Mahannop, also a Justice Court judge.

The NLA’s new panel will comprise 17 NLA members who will finish scrutinising the commissioners’ qualifications within 60 days.

If so, he said, he just wished that the new leader would work hard for the people.

Prayut went on to say that the new government should cling to the national strategy, or otherwise the state budget would be spent in a wasteful manner. They should also take care of people with disabilities, he said.

Prayut also met a group of farmers who filed a complaint with him about plunging rice prices. Some asked him to help find new water sources as water there is scarce during the dry season.

The Prime Minister also spoke about democracy, stressing that it should be equipped with governance and fairness.

At Piboonsongkram Rajabhat University, where he gave away land-use deeds to people in 14 the Northern provinces, PM Prayut said while it was true that the government should govern through democracy, that democracy must be equipped with good governance and fairness. Resources must be distributed fairly to all groups of people, and his government had been working on that during the past three years.

Prayut said he stepped in to office to get things back into order, not to create a burden for everyone. For example, he said, people could not let loose and encroach on forests; they should use the land as allowed.

Most important was creating a better quality of life for all people, and this was the ultimate goal of the national strategy, he said.

Wissanu said on Monday the parties have from today until the end of March to ask registered members whether they wished to stay on as members. If they did, he said, they would be able to submit a confirmation letter and pay membership dues from April 1 next year. Any party member who fails to submit the letter by the deadline would still be able to register with any party later, Wissanu said.

Junta chief Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha last Friday issued an order aimed at extending some deadlines in the Political Party Act which came into effect in early October. The law was not implemented because the junta has not lifted its ban on political activities. Political parties raised concerns over the short period of time for them to follow the stipulation in the order and said they could lose current members.

The order gives party members only one month to decide whether they will stay with their current parties or review their political allegiances. Those wishing to maintain their party memberships must submit letters to confirm the choice to the party leader and pay a membership fee between April 1-30 next year, or they will lose their status.

Political parties said it would be too difficult to have them submit the letters to the party in time. The order also states that existing parties will have 30 days, from May 1-30, 2018, instead of 90 days as stated in the current law, to update their list of party members to the registrar of political parties.

DESPITE the junta leader’s claim to promote an inclusive democracy, the new Article 44 order to extend deadlines for political party activity would instead make a November election “impossible” and weaken public participation in the political system, observers and academics said yesterday.

On Friday, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha issued an order under his absolute powers to amend the existing Political Party Act, giving the main reason as the need to extend the deadlines required for parties to follow ahead of the election.

The junta’s ban against political gatherings of five or more people has stopped parties from holding meetings or making other official moves. Although the order is claimed to “facilitate” parties, it requires members of existing parties to submit “verifying membership documents” to their party headquarters.

“This process will be no different from resetting all of parties’ memberships,” said Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, a law professor and vice rector at Thammasat University.

As the Article 44 order rules that party members should not be subject to stipulations regarding disqualification according to the Political Party Act’s Article 24, this means that any members wishing to verify their membership will have to prepare a lot of paperwork.

Prinya said this would not only encourage people to set up new parties, but allow prospective MP candidates to shift sides easily. The order, while allowing parties to hold meetings, still only gave permission on a “necessity basis” to prepare administrative procedures.

This did not truly give liberty to parties, he added.

Outgoing election commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn said that it would be impossible to hold an election by November next year, despite Prayut’s earlier promise, if parties followed the new timeline stipulated in the Article 44 order.

“This order’s requirement will set new deadlines to fall in October,” Somchai said. “And this is only for the preparation process. It will be impossible to carry out the rest of process in only a month.”

Somchai said that this could leave room for small parties to propose a postponement of the election date.

“This order h as only come to soften the political blow, but it does not actually fix anything,” he added.

Jurin Laksanawisit, the Democrat Party’s deputy leader, said that it was not unusual for new parties to emerge in a post-coup election. “Some parties could directly belong to military men and some parties could be their nominees,” Jurin said.

“But for this coming election, there is no need to set up a party to become prime minister, as the charter allows an outsider to become PM. The [junta-handpicked] Senate will also have power to select the premier,” he said.

This order, he continued, would also weakening the membership of existing parties by making it harder to maintain their supporters, limiting the public’s opportunity to participate in the party system. “Membership is crucial to ensure political institutions such as political parties,” he said.

Chavalit Witchayasuth, Pheu Thai Party’s former deputy secretary-general, said Prayut’s use of absolute powers not only degraded the legitimacy of the legislative system by changing the already royally-endorsed law, it also disrespected people by practically resetting all parties.

They were speaking at a forum titled “How the country has reached this point: The constitution and the first election to democracy” held at the Thai Journalists’ Association headquarters yesterday.

ESTABLISHED political parties will be hit hard by the latest National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)’s order on re-registering existing members, according to leaders of several parties.

Nipit Indarasombat, a former Democrat Party MP, said the NCPO order will negatively affect the party’s membership base of 2.8 million people since there are only 30 days from April 1 to April 30, 2018 for members to show up and keep their membership.

As a result, the Democrat Party’s members could fall sharply even though there could be another 30-day extension of the April 30, 2018 deadline to comply with the NCPO order.

According to Nipit, the order would cause problems for all political parties that existed before the 2014 coup since most would not be able to meet the deadline on re-registering members in accordance with the new order from junta leader and Prime Minister General Prayut Cha-o-Cha.

“We discussed this order among former MPs and shared the opinion that it would be lucky for the Democrat Party to have 100,000 members left in May 2018 because most people would not be able to show up and pay the membership fee in time as required to keep their membership.

“Political parties will then have less funding and less membership participation. In fact, we’ve been building the party’s membership base for the past 71 years. It would be demolished in a matter of 30 days,” he said.

Regarding deputy premier Wissanu Krau-ngam’s reassurance that the election road map is not affected by the NCPO order unless there are other factors, Nipit said such a statement reflects a perception among the powers-that-be of returning the country to a democratic path.

Nipit also noted that some people had cheered Prayut to stay on as PM, as happened during a recent visit to the Northeast, so there could be a general election just to legitimise his premiership.

Udom Rathamarit, spokesman for the charter-drafting committee, said the NCPO order will facilitate political parties to move on with their activities after April 1, 2018, even though there are criticisms that harsher conditions would be imposed, including disqualification of executive members as well as general members.

There are a total of 19 items barring individuals from being party executive members under the new regulations.

On re-registration of members, Udom said the process has to be completed on official forms provided by the Election Commission and should not be seen as an additional burden. He said that the requirements under the new order concerning the political parties’ funding base is aimed at creating an equal footing for both legacy parties and new parties which would be set up.

However, Nikorn Chamnong, director of Chatthai Pattana party, said the NCPO order appears to be a tactic to revamp the whole political party system via requirements about re-registering members.

He said those who drafted the new conditions did not consult with political parties so there could be future problems when enforcing the conditions.

Kept in check

“The order is designed to overhaul the whole system for all old and new parties to start anew, which is worse than the previous conditions which allow members to re-register within 90 days and this deadline could be further extended three times by up to another 270 days, compared to the new conditions which give a total of only 60 days, including one 30-day extension,” Nikorn said.

Nikorn also dismissed as groundless an allegation of many redundant memberships of political parties, reasoning that duplication is not possible given that all members submit their 13-digit ID number.

Analysts said the NCPO order would effectively keep previous political parties in check until April next year as they are not allowed to undertake other activities beyond those outlined in the NCPO mandate for fears of triggering sensitive issues that could affect peace and order.

In addition, the order also states that members of the general public will have the freedom to make their decision on joining any political parties without pressure or pre-conditions imposed by any entities. Law drafters have denied that the order is aimed at diluting the membership base of established major parties.

Paiboon Nititawan, a leader of the People’s Network for Political Reform, said the NCPO order would ensure that old and new political parties are on an equal footing, adding that new parties would have time to hold meetings to establish their new grouping after April 30.

From March 1 onwards, new political parties may apply for registration with authorities after which they could seek permission to hold meetings to complete the registration process around April.

Junta chief and Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has exercised his absolute power via Article 44 to amend the Political Party Act which came into effect on October 8 to change the deadline required under the law for political parties to be prepared for the next election.

Here are the highlights and a decoding of the six-page-order published in the Royal Gazette and effective from Friday:

When will the junta ban on political activities be lifted?

The ban is likely to stay until the organic law on the election of MPs comes into effect as stated in the order. The law is expected to be promulgated in June, as stated by Government Spokesman Lt-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd on Tuesday.

Will political parties or their party members be reset?

The order allows existing political parties and their executive party members to maintain their status. But there may be a reset for party members.

The order opens the opportunity for existing party members to rethink whether they will stay with their current parties or review their political allegiances. If current party members want to keep their party membership, they must submit letters to confirm that choice to the party leader and pay a membership fee between April 1-30 next year, or they will lose their status.

The current political party law previously authorises parties to update their party-member lists within 90 days. With a short period of time and practical difficulties, the chance that existing parties will lose members is high.

Will the order give advantage to new parties over old or existing ones?

Yes, citing “fairness”, it allows new parties to start their activities a month earlier than existing parties.

From March 1 next year, any groups that want to found new parties can begin the process, including seeking Bt1 million in seed funding. They can also ask for permission from the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to convene a meeting to prepare to register a new party.

Existing parties face tougher regulations. They will be able to begin some of their activities from April 1 next year or a six months delay after the political party law was promulgated in October.

Existing parties will have 30 days, from May 1-30, 2018, instead of 90 days as stated in the current law, to update their list of party members to the registrar of political parties. From April 1 – September 30, 2018, they must register seed funding of no less than Bt1 million and have at least 500 qualified members to pay a party membership fee.

Existing parties will be able to convene a general meeting to select their executive party members within 90 days after the NCPO’s orders involving a ban on political activities and gatherings are lifted. In this case, the meeting could be delayed at least until after June, which is the scheduled date of the promulgation of the MP election law.

Will the election be delayed from November next year, as currently scheduled?

Probably yes. The order states that after the organic law concerning the election of MPs is promulgated, which is expected by the government in June next year, the Cabinet shall tell the NCPO to consider amending or revoking any orders or laws that obstruct political activities.

The order also states that the Cabinet and NCPO shall conduct a political road map to the next election after discussions with the Election Commission, Constitution Drafting Commission, President of the National Legislative Assembly and representatives from political parties or groups.

This part of the order means that it opens the way for any amendment on other election regulations, including a primary voting system or a new system for all parties to select MP candidates and the time frame to the election, as well as any other conditions set by the junta before the next election is held. For example, a social pact for reconciliation may be put on the table again.

In conclusion: The latest order via Article 44 appears to facilitate an advantage for new parties. This comes amid concerns that new parties will be founded to support the junta and prolong its period in power after the next election. Existing parties are still under a ban on their activities and face difficulties in maintaining their status and support base. Most importantly, the chances of a November election are uncertain, and the chance to reset the road map is open.

The survey was carried out by Bangkok Poll, from Bangkok University, which interviewed 1,154 people from December 9 to 12.

The survey results announced on Saturday revealed that Toon had 83.5 per cent of votes from the respondents. Prayut came second with 11.1 per cent of votes. Paveena Hongsakul, who owns a foundation that helps women and children, came third with 1.4 per cent