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Published on August 28, 2007

It has also called for the public to submit written suggestions on the three organic laws.

The committee met yesterday to briefly go through major new elements in the draft bills written by the then Constitution Drafting Com-mittee, whose term expired when the new charter came into effect last week.

All three draft laws are subject to change by the new committee, which is headed by Prasong Soonsiri, and the three subcommittees set up to look into each of the bill. The three bills are also subject to further changes by the NLA.

The draft organic law governing the Election Commission (EC) now requires only three members to convene meetings, and in some respects, the EC will enjoy more power.

The proposed law covering political parties, meanwhile, requires a future political party to have 5,000 members before it can be registered. It will also need to contest an election to maintain its status as a political party.

The draft law also states that no one can be a member of more than one political party at the same time.

Another new proposal is the requirement that companies donating money to a political party need to get approval from its shareholders first.

In regard to the organic law on the election, the draft bill will bar future administrations from using state funds for political party campaigns.

It has also been proposed that vote counting for MPs would now take place at polling stations.

This has raised fears by some panel members, including Gothom Arya, that canvassers would get greater access to information on whether people who accepted bribes vote for the candidates they were paid to vote for.

Committee member and Election Commissioner Praphan Naiyakowit said the aim of the proposed laws governing the EC and the elections was to ensure that elections were free and fair in the future.

He however stressed that the public should not expect the laws to achieve this objective immediately.

"We do not expect politics will improve today. But we do hope it will get better in five or 10 years," he said.

On rumours that some MPs are being bought for Bt40 million to join a certain political party, Praphan said evidence was needed in order to prosecute them.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

 The Nation