Drafters tout benefits of German system
Some members of the Constitution Drafting Committee are pushing for the adoption of the electoral system used in Germany, which they say forces political parties to come up with strong policies to attract voters.
Under this proposed system, the number of party-list MPs to constituency MPs is 200-200, compared to ratio of 320-80 in the first constitution draft. CDC member Komsan Phokong said a group led by Krirkkiat Pipatseritham, Dr Chuchai Supawong and Thitipan Chuabunchai agreed that the election system as stipulated in the first constitution draft had too many flaws, distorted the intention of voters and did not follow democratic principles. He said the group believe the CDC should give the nod to the new proposed election system that adopts the same method as that currently implemented in Germany because this system fairly calculated MP seats from the number of votes, thus reflecting the real intention of voters. "This election system will change the face of the Thai political scene and change politicians' attitudes and behaviour to focus on policies rather than vote-buying," Komsan said. He pointed out flaws in the constitution draft that uses the same calculation as that used in the 1997 constitution, explaining the method gave bonuses to parties that receive many constituency party votes. For example, in the previous election, Thai Rak Thai Party, which received 50 per cent of the constituency vote, should have won a little above 300 seats. Because of the method in calculation, however, the party took over 70 per cent on the party-list system, resulting in it winning up to 377 seats in both systems. Mahachon received more than 4 million votes but did not win any MPs in the party-list system.
Sathien Viriyapanpongsa The Nation
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