The ambiguity over whether it refers to a majority of all eligible voters or only of those who actually show up for the referendum needs to be removed.

Some political critics and observers have complained that a requirement for a majority of eligible voters would be impossible to meet.

The military-led government has always insisted that the phrase meant actual voters from the beginning. If every party arrives at the same understanding, an amendment will probably not be necessary, Wissanu said yesterday.

If the Election Commission, the Constitution Drafting Commission and other organs agree today that the interim charter imposed by the military in 2014 must be amended, they would also have to discuss whether it should outline a course of action if the draft charter is rejected.

The junta’s temporary charter in its present form does not address that.

“Or we can amend the interim charter again, after the draft charter really fails in a referendum, and set out what to do next,” he said.

Each amendment would take no more than a month to complete.

No matter how the plebiscite turns out, the election will take place next year as promised by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, he said.

When exactly the referendum could be held cannot be confirmed at this point. There were many factors, including the at least 80 per cent margin of nationwide household receptions of the charter in advance of the referendum.

A version of a previous constitution could be brushed up and adopted if the current draft charter really does sink. It would not need to be put to a referendum any more, just be approved by the military’s ruling National Council for Peace and Order.

Only the Interior and Defence ministries have submitted comments on the new draft constitution. If the rest have any, they will have to turn them in to Wissanu by today.

The remarks gathered so far concerned only minor wording issues, he said. Agencies were worried that their working procedures would be affected and wanted explanations, but he did not go into details.

The comments will be forwarded to the prime minister and the CDC by the Monday due date.

Regarding the attacks on the draft charter, Wissanu said everyone had the right to speak out. The charter framers would heed the criticisms and adjust their draft as appropriate.

Prayut kept mumbling and spoke only briefly after the Cabinet’s weekly meeting yesterday, after throwing a temper tantrum and facing a backlash last week.

Usually, he meets the press after each Cabinet meeting, but yesterday he let Wissanu take to the podium. His message included “ask good questions”.

From now on, deputy prime ministers will take turns substituting for the PM at the post-meeting briefings, Wissanu said.

Ministers will also take the microphone if the meeting agenda concerned them and they had to speak to the press.

He said it was a good idea because deputy PMs and ministers have more information to share with the media than the prime minister, who could only give the big picture.

Meechai said yesterday that the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) would be another key agency working on this task, and as such the NRSA should not be overly concerned about it. The CDC would expedite those laws and chronologically pass them on to the NLA, rather than dumping all 10 organic laws at once. Meechai played down a remark that the NRSA would formally submit changes to the Senate’s indirect election to a complete appointment by the National Council for Peace and Order, saying it would only be a personal view, and he wished to see a formal document from the NRSA first.

Meanwhile, the NRSA discussed the charter content for around eight hours straight during the second day of meetings, before wrapping it up with a vote of 178 to one. The vote endorsed the gathering and synergised the views and comments made by representatives of its 12 committees to be its formal recommendations on the charter draft. They will submit it to the CDC by February 15.

The committee also said that the new method proposed for selecting senators, plus the idea of listing candidates to be prime minister, would not work. And difficult charter amendments would cause another deadlock that would result in the latest charter draft being torn up after a future coup.

The NSRA was scheduled yesterday to comment to the Constitution Drafting Commission about the initial charter draft released last week. A number of political reform committee members took turns discussing its keys issues and agreed that the newly proposed electoral system — Mixed Member Apportionment (MMA) — was a weakness.

Seri Suwanpanon, the committee chairman, expressed concern that such an electoral method would not reflect the wishes of voters.

“They might prefer constituency and party-list candidates from different parties. Thus, forcing them to cross one mark and give their votes to both the party and the constituency candidates would not be fair,” he said.

He suggested that the two-ballot system be adopted with larger constituency areas. Voters’ intentions would be reflected and most votes meaningful – as the CDC had wanted them to be.

Wanchai Sornsiri, a veteran parliamentarian and a member of the committee, also said the MMA system was not fair. He gave it the title of “one for three” as one cross would determine all constituency winning candidates, the party’s popularity, and the candidates to be prime minister.

He also said the system would worsen the vote-buying problem. As a one- ballot system could dictate the fate of parties, they were very likely to want to invest in buying votes, Wanchai said.

Wittaya Kaewparadai, a former Democrat Party man and member of the committee, agreed on the vote buying issue, suggesting that the same method which marked one province as one constituency, as stipulated in the 1997 Constitution, could be adopted.

Another committee member Kamnoon Sidhisamarn, a former charter writer, also opposed the MMA system, saying it was not fair for small parties, which might not be able to field constituency candidates and could lose the right to any seat in the Lower House.

The political reform committee was critical of the “cross-election” of senators as well, fearing a “bloc vote” could make the process unfair.

Seri said that if senators really came to power through such an “unjust” way, their qualifications could not be guaranteed. He proposed that senators be chosen by a credible selection committee.

Wanchai agreed, but said the selection panel should be recruited intensively. It should also keep documents that noted the reasons for senators being selected.

Members also asked that drafters to consider dropping the idea to list candidates to be prime minister.

Kamnoon said this was unnecessary. Parties usually encouraged their leaders to take the top government job, anyway.

Another hot issue concerning the new draft was how amending the constitution had been made very difficult. A change had to be approved by at least 10 per cent of MPs of each party, and some points also required community approval in a referendum.

Chairman of the political reform panel said such a stipulation would make the constitution itself a source of conflict and could potentially lead to another charter being torn down.

Nikron Chamnong, a veteran politician and a member of the political reform panel, agreed, saying that things changed as time went by. The constitution should not be too tight and should have room for amendment in case situations changed.

 

“Get ready for a general election to be held soon,” Thaksin said on Sunday via a video call made to a group of former Pheu Thai MPs who joined a Chinese New Year celebration organised by Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan at her residence in the Lat Pla Khao area.

The former prime minister also said Pheu Thai members in Bangkok have a team leader in Sudarat, who is a “competent lady”.

He also has branded the draft constitution as “shoddy” and claimed it would cause the country to become “backward – like Myanmar and North Korea”.

“The draft constitution is shoddy, giving too much power to the Constitutional Court. This will lead the country to be backward like Myanmar and North Korea,” he said.

“I left home 10 years ago but our country has stepped back 20 years,” Thaksin said. He also harshly criticised the junta.

The fugitive ex-PM said Pheu Thai had a good chance of returning to power.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam responded to Thaksin’s comment about the charter draft’s shortfalls, saying he acknowledged the criticism.

Wissanu also insisted that an election would be held next year.

Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) member Thitipan Chuabunchai said Thaksin had the right to criticise the charter but he should give constructive comments. “He was the country’s leader, so he should have said what the charter draft should include,” he said.

CDC member Chartchai Na Chiangmai, who serves as chairman of the commission’s public relations and survey departments, said Thaksin is influential and can make people believe what he says. He should use his potential to develop the country rather than make destructive criticisms or only comment with the intention to protect his party or self-interest, he said.

Meanwhile, Army commander-in-chief General Teerachai Nakwanich said United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship leaders Jatuporn Prompan and Nattawut Saikua should stop criticising the Thai Reserve Officers and Training Corps Students about their campaign to educate the public about the charter draft.

Teerachai said the students had volunteered to spread information about the charter, which aims to combat graft. “Please do not shake their morale. They are not trying to lead the public to vote for or against the draft,” he said.

The military-installed government is seeking permanent reforms, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said yesterday, adding the Cabinet would ask the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) to highlight reform efforts in the main text of the draft charter rather than in provisional clauses.

Cabinet members have proposed mechanisms to ensure the next government formed after the elections will carry on the task of reform during a transition period of at least four years.

Although the first draft of the charter touches on reform plans in certain sectors such as education and law enforcement, the government believes reform provisions should have a separate chapter and not be inserted in provisional chapters, which might downgrade reform efforts to only short-term implementation, Wissanu said. He added that reforms would be a lengthy process and require long-term measures.

Wissanu said the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) agreed with the government’s suggestion on the matter.

He also suggested that the CDC should not respond to critics and the media every day because he believed critics had not read the draft thoroughly. He instead suggested that the CDC answer questions about the contents of the draft periodically.

Meanwhile, PM’s Office Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana said he had given his feedback on the draft by stressing long-term national strategies that linked with reform plans. He added that farsighted strategies were needed to ensure that future governments would continually and seriously implement reform plans set out in the charter.

“At least during the transition period in the next four years, Thais should be assured that there will be good governance in the political system that enables the government to function and not be hit by a political impasse. This mechanism should strengthen the country to go through a transition period with social, economic and political stability,” he said.

Wissanu said every ministry had been instructed to give feedback on the charter draft and forward recommendations for review by tomorrow. Suwaphan questioned the motives of opponents campaigning for a public rejection of the charter. “They are the same group that want a general election to be held soon. But campaigning against the charter draft means an election will be further delayed. What are they thinking?” he asked.

In a related development, the NRSA will hold a two-day meeting starting today to review the draft to make its own recommendations to the CDC.

NRSA vice chair Alongkorn Ponlaboot said the assembly would schedule discussions to give each committee its own time slot. The NRSA has 12 reform committees lining up to propose their recommendations.

Meanwhile, the Democrat Party called on the government as well as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to allow the public and academic institutions to openly make comments on the charter.

Ong-art Klampaiboon, deputy leader of the party, held a press conference yesterday to call for open comments. He said the CDC would benefit from thoroughly listening to the views of various sectors that might expose flaws or weaknesses, which could be addressed before the charter is finalised.

Besides, Ong-art said, a public exchange of viewpoints could encourage people to be more interested in the charter and vote in the planned referendum. The NCPO should take these benefits into account and loosen its grip limiting people’s forums regarding the charter, he added.

Suriyasai Katasila, director of Rangsit University’s Thailand Reform Institute, reiterated that the CDC must ensure that people have room to participate in politics, especially to achieve the primary anti-graft goal addressed in the charter.

Suriyasai said corruption has become more complicated because wrongdoing often takes place at a policy level. Greater public participation and better governance in laying out policies initially could help to prevent corruption of this kind, he added.

Meanwhile, the CDC held its second forum in the Northeast to listen to peoples’ views at the weekend. The forum, led by CDC deputy chair Apichart Sukhakhanont, saw representatives from 20 Northeast provinces showing particular interest in local political systems, government policies, and people and government’s rights, freedoms and duties.

In addition, representatives from three key non-profit organisations – the Northeastern Consumers Network, WeMove and the Northeastern Community Organisation – submitted comments about how the charter draft should be amended.

Premsak Piayura, mayor of Bann Pai, said the draft’s rules about the screening of political candidates would help minimise corruption. He also stressed that the CDC should engage local organisations to help educate people about the draft.

Patiwat Chalermchart, a representative of a consumers’ network, proposed the independence of consumer-protection organisations should be assured in the charter.