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Thailand's draft constitution likely to be amended

Xinhua, March 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha has implied the military-proposed amendments to Thailand's draft constitution would likely to be resubmitted to the charter drafting committee until the panel has done accordingly.

Without going into details, the prime minister, who concurrently heads the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), commented Tuesday that the NCPO-proposed amendments to the draft constitution would likely to be resubmitted anytime in foreseeable future after they had been earlier handed out to the Constitution Drafting Committee headed by former parliament president Mechai Ruchupan.

''I have the power so I might probably have (the NCPO proposals) resubmitted until they have been taken into account (by the Mechai panel),'' said Gen Prayut.

Central to the NCPO-proposed amendments to the draft charter is the naming of a total of 250 senators by an ''independent'' committee consisting of eight to 10 ''respected, qualified'' persons, according to the NCPO proposals.

The NCPO has also pushed for a five-year term for each of the 250 non-elected senators who could supposedly perform in ''balance'' to the legislative power of a total of 500 elected MPs.

Gen Prayut earlier called for a five-year ''transitional'' period beginning with the making of a post-election parliament and a government.

The prime minister repeatedly assured that the election will be held some time next year while a nationwide public referendum as to whether a majority of the Thai people will accept the draft charter or not is tentatively scheduled by the Election Commission for the upcoming August. Endit