The Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) yesterday agreed on a 150-strong Senate of both selected and elected members to replace the Senate of 200 elected senators under the defunct 1997 charter.

Seventy-six senators will be elected, one from each province, while a special ad-hoc panel will pick the remaining 74 members from among experts and well-known figures in various professional fields.

The Senate model proposed by the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) was approved by a narrow margin of 37 votes to 35.

The senator-selection panel will include the president of the Constitution Court, the parliamentary ombudsman, the chairmen of the National Counter Corruption Commission, the State Audit Commission and the Election Commission and two representatives whom the Supreme Court and Supreme Administra-tive Court will each select from outside agencies.

Before the vote, Karun Sai-ngam argued that it was wrong to allow these high-ranking officials to select almost half of the senators.

Karun said the draft constitution gave the Senate authority to impeach these officials but these same officials were given authority to pick the senators, which could lead to a conflict of interest and affect the neutrality of both parties.

CDA member Siwa Sangmanee said there should only be elected senators because that would represent the real voice of the people.

He urged fellow members not to stick to the idea that elected senators would tend to side with political parties, as they had in past years.

"Don't look down on the people," he said. "They know who is good or bad. Let them decide [through elections]."

Siwa said that while the constitution drafters had launched a public-relations campaign promising more power to the people, they had reduced the people's power instead by allowing a panel of just seven members to select almost half the Senate.

CDA member Chirmsak Pinthong proposed dividing the country into 16 Senate constituencies, each comprising several provinces. Each constituency would elect 10 candidates for a 160-member Senate.

He said the multi-provincial constituencies would reduce the chances of vote-buying as they would be beyond the influence of local powerful figures.

The selection of senators by an ad-hoc panel as proposed by the CDC could lead to candidates seeking the backing

of people in power, which would be a throwback to the patronage system, Chirmsak added.

CDC deputy chairman Charan Pakdithanakul defended his panel's proposal for selected senators, saying the main point was to bring neutral candidates into the Senate who would be unlikely to win seats in an election.

Weerayut  Chokchaimadon

The Nation