IN AN ATTEMPT to reduce pressure from politicians regarding the ban on political activities, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha will use his absolute powers under Article 44 to amend the Political Party Act to extend deadlines for parties to prepare themselves for the next election.

But political party meetings and the registration for new parties will still not be allowed under the junta’s ban, which has been in force since the 2014 coup.

The new deadlines have not been publicised but they should be addressed in the order, which is expected to be implemented by the end of this year.

Prayut said the order would only allow parties to “clear up an administrative dilemma”.

Despite the deadline extension, the premier said, the so-called “road map to democracy” would not be altered, including his earlier affirmation that an election will be held by November next year.

“There are still organic laws to be deliberated, so don’t worry,” Prayut said, referring to the bill drafts on the election of MPs and origin of the Senate, two of four laws essential to hold an election.

The 2017 Constitution stipulates that once the four laws – on the election of MPs, Senate origin, Election Commission and political parties – are implemented, an election must be organised within 150 days.

The prime minister’s remarks came as politicians have expressed concern that the junta’s lingering ban on political gatherings of five or more people had prevented them from organising in line with the Political Party Act.

Parties are supposed to follow deadlines stipulated by the bill’s Article 141, which were set from the day of its enactment. For example, they need to update their membership lists within 90 days.

As the bill was officially enacted on October 7, that deadline is January 5.

However, political movements with a history of supporting the junta have voiced support for amendments to the bill in the past week, which they claimed would “provide fairness to all sides”.

Government Spokesperson Lt-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd added that the NCPO would lift the political ban after the MP election bill was promulgated, which is expectedly in June.

“It means the political parties can begin their activities 150 days before the election is held,” he said.

The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) meeting yesterday concluded the deadline extension using Article 44 would avoid legal conflicts and complications, he said.

He added that the order would establish a fair playing field for all, including existing and new parties.

“The new parties will be able to register at the same time as the old parties are allowed to hold meetings. Everyone will get to start together,” the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday questioned the decision to use Article 44 to carry out the amendment.

Abhisit said impediments to the promulgation of the political party law had not originated from some outside party, but from the junta itself, which would issue an order that contradicted the recently passed law.

“If you invoke a special power to override a law, you must come up with a clear reason as to why. What you do will prove whether it’s about reforms or just personal benefit,” Abhisit said.

He also criticised Prayut in regards to his announcement, made during a recent trip to the Northeast, that his backing of certain political groups would be “no less evil” than previous systems.

Prayut told villagers in Kalasin that if they wanted to pick a prime minister, they should choose one similar to him, apparently suggesting that he would not stand in the next general election.

Abhisit said the junta tended to criticise political parties as evil, so he questioned whether the junta should be branded the same if it acts politically.

“I don’t want to see the country stuck in the mud. Reform means change, not just newcomers taking turns on stage. We need to get out of the evil loop,” Abhisit said.

He added that the junta government should be accountable and if it cannot hold the election as promised, it should tell people clearly.

Meanwhile, the founder of the People’s Reform Party, Paiboon Nititawan, said he would submit proposals to National Legislative Assembly (NLA) President Pornpetch Wichitcholchai and PM Prayut to create exemptions regarding the political party law, including provisions for a primary round of voting.

Paiboon said the primary vote would require procedures that he believed parties would not be able to conduct. Exemptions could be implemented via Article 44 or normal NLA processes, he said.

Paiboon also called for the junta’s ban on political gathering and activities to remain in force until the Election Commission declares the election results. However, some exemptions should be made for political activities within parties, such as meetings, he said.

The latest proposals came on top of Paiboon’s call last week to amend the party law to nullify all members to create fairness between existing parties and new ones.

Chief constitution drafter Meechai Ruchupan said Paiboon’s proposal was viable if the current stipulation caused problems or difficulties.

He said the law allowed current members to maintain their memberships, but it also laid out strict qualifications. If party members committed wrongdoing, they will be punished, he added.

Meechai said another cause of concern was that regulations only required parties to report their current registration records to the Election Commission, which authorities might want to consider.

Regarding the lifting of the political ban, Meechai as an NCPO member said he could not answer for the institution but personally he thought the decision would rely on the situation.

His comments came after the National Legislative Assembly’s (NLA) law-vetting committee had agreed in the first intance to authorise the NACC, in the new organic law governing the agency, to eavesdrop on phone calls of politicians, government officials and the people in order to enhance its graft-fighting work.

Meechai said such power could be considered unconstitutional, given that new charter of 2017 protected the rights and freedom of the people.

The issue has nothing to do with recruiting capable people, but with empowering the committee, he argued.

While the NACC could enjoy such excessive power, the chief charter-drafter said he viewed that such a stipulation in the law would have a long-lasting impact and he considered it to be “rather inappropriate”.

However, if the NLA insisted on the eavesdropping stipulation, the CDC head said he would have to “let them be”.

Meechai added that his personal assessment was that it could have a negative impact on NLA members themselves if they were to proceed with the proposal from the body’s law-vetting panel.

The NACC bill is one of 10 organic laws about to be promulgated as required by the new Constitution.

The proposed eavesdropping authority is the newest proposal to have emerged, after the law passed the NLA’s first reading.

The law-vetting committee plans to table the scrutinised bill to the NLA for the second and third readings this week.

The former PM said he wondered what this was all about, as it was the junta that had wished to reform politics and come up with the organic law, but its latest decision would now override it.

Abhisit said the impediment to the political party law’s promulgation at this point had not originated from any outside party, but from the junta itself, which had now issued an order that contradicted the recently passed law.

He was apparently referring to the National Council for Peace and Order’s ban on political gatherings, which bumps up against the organic law’s requirement that political parties pursue certain activities ahead of the election, including updates of their membership, as well as party meetings.

“If you invoke a special power to override the law, you must come up with a clear reason as to why. What you will be doing will prove whether it’s about reform or just personal benefit,” Abhisit said.

He also lashed out at Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha in regard to an announcement he made during a recent trip to the Northeast, with the ex-premier saying it would be “no less evil” than any past systems, under which those in power backed certain groups, if Prayut were to do the same.

Prayut told villagers in Kalasin that if they wanted to pick a prime minister, they should choose one like him, apparently suggesting that he would not stand in the next general election.

Abhisit said the junta tended to slam political parties, branding them as evil-like, therefore he questioned whether the junta would be similarly branded if they did the same as politicians.

“I don’t want to see the country stuck in the mud. Reform means change, not just newcomers taking turns on the stage. We need to get out of the evil loop,” Abhisit stressed.

The Democrat leader said the junta government should be accountable, and if it could not hold the election as promised, it needed to tell people straight that this was so.

The decision was made at the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) meeting chaired by its chief, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, on Tuesday.

The Act came into effect in early October and it set a deadline for political parties to update their lists of party members to the Election Commission within 90 days after promulgation – or January 5 next year.

But the parties have not been able to follow the law because of the junta’s order to ban any political activities has remained in force since 2014.

Paiboon said the primary vote would require procedures that he believed parties would not be able to conduct.

Exemptions could be implemented via Article 44 or normal NLA processes, he said.

Paiboon also called for the junta’s ban on political gathering and activities to remain in force until the Election Commission declares the election results. However, some exemptions should be made for political activities within parties, such as meetings, he said.

The latest proposals came on top of Paiboon’s call last week to waive the collection of membership fees for new parties, which he said would reset parties’ membership.

Tanasak added that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha would also make a statement about possible amendments to the political party law.

There have been increasing calls for the junta to lift its ban on political activities as parties have stated that they needed to prepare for elections in line with the political parties law.

However, the junta has kept the ban in force.

PRIME MINISTER General Prayut Chan-o-cha has been urged to exercise his absolute powers to suspend Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan from duty as the deputy premier remains mired in controversy.

“We call on Prayut to use Article 44 to temporarily suspend Prawit from his posts as deputy premier and defence minister without pay until the investigation conclusion,” Srisuwan Janya, secretary-general of the Thai Constitution Protection Association, said in a statement issued yesterday, referring to the absolute powers granted to the head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).

In the statement, Srisuwan said Prawit was facing an investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) regarding whether he had intended to conceal his assets.

Early this month, Prawit landed in hot water after being photographed wearing a flamboyant Richard Mille wristwatch and diamond ring that he had not declared in his assets list to the NACC when taking office in 2014.

Social media users later piled on the pressure by posting photos of Prawit wearing seven other luxury watches while attending recent events.

In his four assets declarations during his on-and-off membership in governments since 2008, Prawit has never declared a single asset worth more than Bt200,000 to the NACC. His latest declaration in 2014 valued his total assets at Bt87 million.

The investigation has also raised questions about the general’s “unusual wealth” regarding his total assets and the expensive watches. Pictures have shown him wearing what look like two Richard Mille watches that are estimated to cost between Bt4 million and Bt10 million.

Srisuwan added that the deputy premier was also facing an online campaign pressuring him to step down over offhand comments he made about the death of cadet Phakhapong “Meay” Tanyakan, who died under suspicious circumstances at a military academy in October. Prawit’s remarks that he had also been previously disciplined harshly but had not died, seeming to blame Phakhapong’s poor health for his death, grabbed national headlines.

Srisuwan cited two previous suspension orders issued by Prayut, asking the premier to treat controversial incidents in a fair manner.

The NCPO chief invoked Article 44 to suspend then-Bangkok governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra, who was under investigation over alleged irregularities during his tenure. Prayut also suspended Premsak Piayura, former mayor of Ban Phai Municipality in Khon Kaen, over accusations of misconduct in a case in which a reporter who exposed Premsak’s alleged engagement to a schoolgirl was stripped of his clothes as a form of public embarrassment.

“I hope Prayut will not use a double standard or favour his close associates. [Prawit’s suspension] is necessary to get rid of a bad apple to save the whole bushel, or the whole organisation. It would help to maintain the junta’s good image concerning fighting corruption,” Srisuwan said.

Meanwhile, Prawit smiled yesterday before telling the media briefly that he felt tired amid the mounting pressure on him to resign.

For the past two weeks, the embattled deputy premier has remained silent on how he will explain to the NACC his possession of the items, only saying early on in the affair that he would submit a letter of explanation to the agency.

However, local media have cited an aide to the deputy premier as saying that the watch had belonged to one of Prawit’s close friends who died earlier this year. The aide said the pair had known each other for more than 60 years since their elementary school days.

The unidentified deceased friend, who was described as a businessman and watch lover, lent watches to Prawit, some of which were not returned, the aide reportedly said.

This would not only solve the ongoing oversupply crisis but also help to promote qualified broadcasters in their ongoing efforts at self-regulation, they claimed.

The number of broadcasters has dramatically increased following the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC)’s auction of digital television frequencies n 2013. But the “gold rush” soon faded as the increase of TV channels without an increase in the consumption rate meant many broadcasters could not make ends meet.

More than half of the new TV channels have shut down, while existing channels have had to cut costs to survive. In a recent case, the eight-year-old Voice TV has said it expects to reduce its number of employees by half.

The overwhelming number of channels also makes it harder for media organisations to self-regulate and will eventually leave room for the NBTC to take action instead, media professionals said. “There are around 20 cases that digital television stations have been fighting in courts with the NBTC. But they don’t go anywhere, thanks to the NBTC’s own bill,” said one professional. “The unclear effects of our claimed self-regulation also results in the NBTC having to take regulatory steps.”

The NBTC, which is now military-dominated, has been known to suspend some TV channels or programmes that they deem to be “harmful to national security”. The programmes were mostly critical to either the ruling junta or the monarchy.

The professionals were speaking at a session held by the government-appointed media reform committee.

Hearing from the government, media and public, the event was aimed at gathering ideas for a reform report due for submission on Sunday. The report is supposed to be used as part of the government’s 20-year national strategy.

While media workers focused on enhancing the self-regulation mechanism, including coping with possibly increased state authority in the media arena, members of the public at the session saw the need for the state to improve “media morality”.

“We wish to see a collaborative platform [between the government and media] at all levels,” read a summary after the brainstorming session.

Thepchai Yong, president of the Thai Broadcast Journalists’ Association, reiterated that the media needed to boost their self-regulation integrity through the use of a media ombudsman – a new mechanism set up to ensure that consumers get fairer treatment from the media.

“Allowing state authority in the media arena is rather traditional thought,” Thepchai said. “We should support self-regulation to close the doors to any powers-that-be who want to infringe on media affairs.”

However, Wissanu said the amendment would not affect the upcoming election, saying it was “a separate issue”.

Wissanu, the government’s legal expert, said the law had to be amended to extend the period of time for political parties to prepare ahead of the election.

The charter’s provisional chapter gives parties 90 days to update their membership, the deadline for which ends early next month, and politicians have cried foul that they might miss the deadline, while new parties said they would be at a disadvantage.

Wissanu said the extension of the 90-day period could be done with the permission of the Election Commission (EC) but it could still pose “disadvantages” to some parties so it was “only fair” to use Article 44 to amend the law.

He also dismissed using the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) to change the law, saying it would take too long because the charter required public hearings under Article 77 as well as feedback from the EC.

Wissanu said the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) had been considering the issue and would be the body that made the decision.

Wissanu admitted that an extension of the 90-day deadline would be meaningless if the political ban was not lifted.

Calls for a legal amendment have grown since last week, when political heavyweights including the former leader of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, Suthep Thausuban, proposed amending the law in order to ensure “fair treatment” of both old and new parties. Suthep did not, however, detail what specific points he considered unfair.

Former reformer Paiboon Nititawan suggested amending the point about the collection of membership fees from new parties, which he said he saw as unfair.

Those two figures are expected to meet the NLA this week to express their views on the amendment. Their actions, however, are viewed by political observers as attempts to delay the election.

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, meanwhile, questioned the motives behind moves to amend the law, saying both proposals came from people who once supported the junta-sponsored bill, and he wanted to know why they had changed their minds. He also said he thought their proposals were unclear.

Abhisit said the solution to the problem was to lift the junta’s political ban to allow parties to pursue political activities as they saw fit. “The question is why do you want to amend the law. If it’s to delay the election, there is no need to amend the law at all. Just be straight about why you cannot do what you have promised, what the reasons are. You need to make this clear, or otherwise we will have a new political problem,” he said.

Mechanisms to follow up the reform plan for natural resources management and the environment will be developed and put in place to ensure implementation and public participation, Dr Choochai Supawongse, chair of the natural resources and environment reform committee’s public-hearing panel, said.

He told the Nation at the last public hearing on the reform plan over the past weekend that community leaders would be invited to take part in the future workshops to help figure out the mechanisms, which would possibly include new platforms where concerned parties in all regions could meet and work together.

“Environmental issues concern everyone and have impacts on everyone, so we need to work together to ensure that the damaged environment is rehabilitated and preserved better than ever,” he added.

Dr Choochai at the weekend forum heard intensive calls for public participation in environmental reforms.

The meeting – the last of six forums held in all regions since last month – introduced the committee’s detailed sub-plans, which cover all six reform issues, plus activities to move forward, as well as indicators of success.

It was attended by around 300 invited parties, of which 80 per cent were community leaders there to help represent the voices of people from their localities.

Besides recommendations to change some proposals that had been introduced, attendees extensively suggested participation in the management of natural resources.

For instance, participants from the land resources group suggested participation and increased roles for communities in managing resources, including the forests. The water resources group made a similar suggestion for increasing the roles of communities in managing water resources.

Buntoon Srethasirote, chair of the committee’s environmental management panel – a cross-cutting body of all groups – said public participation had actually been addressed in the reform plan, and additionally, the roles of private entities would be boosted to ensure the nation’s environmental sustainability.

To materialise public participation and decentralisation in this regard, new laws would be promulgated, including a community rights bill, he said.

To ensure that reform in regard to the environment does not lose its way, sustainable-development goals will be applied as a framework for the plan, he added.

Theerapat Prayurasiddhi, the committee’s vice chair, said the committee had been trying to connect all possible natural resources as well as environmental management in the plan, but it could not put everything into a single plan.

The issues need to be selective, and must be reform issues, otherwise the work would be too loaded and not go anywhere, he insisted.

Theerapat said besides the committee, which is one of 13 appointed under the national reform law, there would be the national strategy committee to help look at the big picture, which would allay concerns that the reform would not be accomplished.

Dr Choochai said contributions from the forums would be included in the plan before it was submitted to the government at the end of this month. The plan is expected to be in effect by April next year, he added.

The public hearing panel chair also said that despite time limits for the hearings, participants’ contributions could indeed help shape the direction of reform, as a number of them were experienced figures.

The issues they have helped the panel reflect upon are structural, which points to the need for structural solutions, which is indeed the same when it comes to reform matters, he said.