Govt urged to seek new decree
The caretaker government should seek a new election decree to replace the one that took effect a week ago to prevent future legal problems, the chairman of a Senate panel said yesterday.
Caretaker Senator Sunthorn Chinda-in, who heads the panel verifying the background of Election Commission (EC) nominees, said that a legal problem could arise about the validity of the current decree because there was no EC chairman to regulate it. He suggested the caretaker government should look at cancelling the current election decree and submitting a new decree for royal endorsement. Sunthorn's comment came after Criminal Court judge Udom Fuangfung, a candidate for the new EC, said on Tuesday the decree was not valid because there was no EC chairman to take charge of election. Sunthorn said yesterday the EC deputy secretary-general, the agency's most senior official still working, had consulted the Senate's legal advisers over the issue but there had been no clear answer. "The decree may not be invalid but it can't be put into practice because there is no EC chairman," he said. Sunthorn said it would be best to seek a new decree instead of waiting for a legal problem to arise.
Bancha Khaengkhan The Nation
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