Meeting urges constitution rewrite

A meeting of government coalition parties yesterday agreed to push for the formation of a Constitution Drafting Assembly to manage political reform despite a boycott by a large number of senators and the opposition Democrat Party.

The meeting was chaired by House Speaker Chai Chidchob, and its participants included Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat. Senate Speaker Prasobsook Boondech and Opposition Leader Abhisit Vejjajiva were absent.

Prasobsook said Deputy Senate Speaker Nikom Wairatpanij participated in the meeting as an individual lawmaker and did not represent the Senate.

The meeting reached a unanimous decision to amend Article 291 of the Constitution to bring about formation of a Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA), PM's Office Minister Sukhumpong Ngonkham said.

The composition of the CDA will be based on recommendations made by Nikom, he said.

The CDA is to have 240 days to complete a rewrite of the Constitution. Should the draft then be rejected by Parliament, it will be put to a national referendum.

If it passes either parliamentary scrutiny or the referendum it will then be submitted for royal endorsement before promulgation.

The CDA will comprise 120 members. The 76 provinces will each have one representative. Twenty-four members will be selected according to their expertise in jurisprudence, political science or public law. Each of the three expert groups will have eight members. The remaining 20 members will come from various professional groups.

All CDA candidates are to be nominated by their peer groups and peer voting will decide who fills the assembly seats.

Chai is expected to call for a debate by next week to amend Article 291. Under parliamentary procedures, a House-Senate session will complete scrutiny of the proposed amendment within 45 to 60 days. If it is deemed to be a priority agenda item, the scrutiny may be complete in 30 days.

Senator Somchai Sawaengkan said Prasopsuk should not get involved in the charter rewrite. He said he and his group of 40 senators opposed the rewrite on the grounds that it lacked genuine participation by the people.

He said the proposed political reform was no longer a practical solution to the turmoil that followed the violent October 7 crackdown.

Prime Minister Somchai said the main opposition party had boycotted the charter rewrite meeting even though it had previously given its endorsement. Plans for the political reform were therefore no longer a quadrupartite agreement but a tripartite one comprising the House speaker, the Senate and the government, he said.

Opposition leader Abhisit said he believed it was too late to form the CDA as a way out of the turmoil.

"After the violent crowd dispersal on October 7, the government has tried to bring about the CDA as a pretext to elude its responsibility for the bloodshed," he said, adding that the Democrats would meet tomorrow to decide whether to participate in Wednesday's House session.

He said he could not understand why the prime minister appeared willing to put the country at risk instead of assuming responsibility in order to defuse tension.

Abhisit said that should the prime minister decide to step down, this would not lead to a political vacuum, so there was no justification for concern about disrupting the royal funeral for the late Princess Galyani Vadhana.

He repeated his call for House dissolution, arguing that it was the only option left to get out of the current political predicament.