Member slams NPA selection
A member of the committee supervising the National People's Assembly yesterday attacked the selection process for the NPA.
Kamolpan Cheewapansri claimed it was unfair and that the committee had used double standards by allowing representatives from universities to become members of political parties. "I oppose the quota for university rectors because we don't know whether they are related to political parties or not. If 400 or 500 of them can join without limitation [and are members of a political party], they can create a bloc vote. If we allow that to happen, the country will be dominated by rectors and technocrats and we don't want any group to take advantage," she said. Besides representatives from universities' student organisations, representatives from other student organisations such as the Students' Federation of Thailand should be allowed to join, said Kamolpan during a press conference about progress of NPA member selection. The 2,000 members of the NPA, comprising representatives from groups and provinces around the country, will vote among themselves for 200 candidates - 100 of which will be picked by the Council for National Security (CNS). The assembly's composition, including groups representing politicians and university rectors and students, have already been allocated. Allowing representatives from other groups besides political representatives to be members of the NPA without examining whether they are members of political parties, could change the ratio of the political representatives in the assembly. Supoj Khaimook, the committee public relations chairman, said the committee agreed that politicians and representatives from political parties could join the NPA - but could not join the Constitution Drafting Assembly. However, people not selected by provincial selection committees could also propose themselves to join the NPA from the Cabinet and CNS quota of 230 seats. Meanwhile, a source from the committee, who asked not to be named, said the committee had found irregularities in the NPA selection process especially in the eastern provinces - where only district chiefs can select representatives.
Sathien Viriyapanpongsa The Nation
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