Appeals to charter court on organic laws could delay election: Wissanu

By THE NATION 

 

 

IF A Constitutional Court ruling is sought on whether proposed revisions to the organic laws on MP elections and the Senate structure are constitutional, the next general election may be delayed up to two months, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said yesterday.

 

He said the current “road map to democracy” did not take into account time for such legal detours.

 

“That is what we did not expect. We allow time for the tripartite committee to try to settle the differences in their opinion and reach a conclusion within 15 days,” Wissanu said.

 

The panel consists of members from the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), the NLA committees vetting the laws and the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC), which wrote the bills.

 

Wissanu, who is in charge of the government’s legal affairs, said yesterday that if there were no additional procedures the two laws were expected to be finalised soon and submitted for royal endorsement in March.

 

“If the bills get delayed because of appeals to the Constitutional Court, you have to allow an extra month or two [for the court to rule], depending on the difficulty of the case,” he said.

 

Both laws recently were endorsed by the NLA in the third reading after many changes were made to the original drafts.

 

Meanwhile, the drafters of the bills have maintained certain points in their original drafts and submitted their objections to the NLA in writing to the revisions today, CDC spokesman Udom Rath-amarit said.

 

Among the points opposed by the CDC are a revision in the MP election bill that would allow candidates to host entertainment during campaigning, and a proposed extension of the voting time to 7am to 5pm, according to Udom.

 

In the revised bill on the Senate structure, the drafters disagreed with the reduction of occupational groups of candidates from 20 to 15, and voting among candidates in the same groups, instead of different groups as proposed in the original draft. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30338265

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-02-08

He said the current “road map to democracy” did not take into account time for such legal detours.

 

The current road map !!! So exactly how many of these alleged road maps are they trying to drive from ??

That might be the problem, maybe just stick to one map that has nice big symbols on, hopefully you won't get lost again :)

Follow the road map. 

Nobody knows what the current road map actually is. It has a start and an infinite path .

Just like a real map, the road starts at one side, goes around and around in a circle and out the other side to infinity. Real road maps don't have an ending. 

And neither does prayuts. 

Junta to sponsor appeal coming soon !

6 hours ago, webfact said:

the current “road map to democracy” did not take into account time for such legal detours.

Too bad.

The "road map to democracy" was placed by the junta into the constitution draft for that very reason - not to allow any legislative changes by subsequent governments. By the NCPO allowing amendments to these legal organic laws enacted by its own appointed NLA (regardless whether such changes are constitutional), the NCPO essentially violates the constitution by altering its own road map.

 

The constitutionally mandated road map must be I believe amended by the provisions specified by the 2017 Constitution. Article 256 states in selected subparts^*:

• (2) a motion for amendment must be proposed to the National Assembly in the form of a draft Constitution Amendment thereafter the National Assembly shall consider it in three readings - not as an amendment to a law!
• (3) the voting in the first reading for acceptance in principle shall be by roll call and open voting, and the amendment must be approved by the votes of ... include the number of members of the Senate of not less than one-third of the existing members of the Senate - there is currently no Senate that can vote!
• (6) the voting in the third and final reading shall be by roll call and open voting, and its promulgation as the Constitution must be approved by the votes of .... include the number of members of the Senate of not less than one-third of the existing members of the Senate - ditto!
• (9) before the Prime Minister presents the draft Constitution Amendment to the King for His signature ... thereafter the President of the House receiving such opinion [from members of Parliament] shall refer the case to the Constitutional Court and the Constitutional Court shall complete its adjudication within thirty days as from the date of receipt.

In brief I find that the proposed amendment to the new organic laws constitutes an amendment to the Constitution. The Constitutional Court should reject the amendments to the new organic laws simply on the principle that the process for  amendments to the Constitution was not followed. If the Court accepts the amendment for adjudication, it too violates the Constitution!

 

The NCPO drafted a Constitution to trap Thais into its own handcrafted rule of law and now it too may find itself in the trap as well. Time to roll out Article 44.

 

* unofficial translation through the collaboration and contributions of International IDEA (Australia), International Commission of Jurists (Thailand) and the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Thailand (Thailand).

 

Edited February 8, 20188 yr by Srikcir
correct a mystery format alteration

3 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Junta to sponsor appeal coming soon !

Yep i heard it is from Sam the street cleaner. He dont know what he is appealing but who cares? Junta will use anybody to appeal

6 hours ago, webfact said:

and submitted their objections to the NLA in writing to the revisions today

there have been warnings that there exists a 'no-man's-land' in the current procedures leading up to an often promised election;

goes something like this: if the latter voting processes for the remaining bills do not result in overwhelming positive outcome, then a deadlock ensues for which there is no clear resolution;

wouldnt put it past the current bunch to engineer that exact scenario, then they stay

Err...which T= 0 is the DPM referring? Does he mean a further delay from the previous prior...etc. delay. That is, there will be a delay on the delay that put the election at February. So can we assume he is now thinking of April?

2 hours ago, YetAnother said:

there have been warnings that there exists a 'no-man's-land' in the current procedures leading up to an often promised election;

goes something like this: if the latter voting processes for the remaining bills do not result in overwhelming positive outcome, then a deadlock ensues for which there is no clear resolution;

wouldnt put it past the current bunch to engineer that exact scenario, then they stay

They did the same thing with the first constitution, so follows they will engineer further delays this way.

He said the current “road map to democracy” did not take into account time for such legal detours. “That is what we did not expect.  

Edited February 8, 20188 yr by Dap

8 minutes ago, Dap said:

He said the current “road map to democracy” did not take into account time for such legal detours. “That is what we did not expect.  

The delays are all calculated into the democracy-decimating process. From Day One they knew they were going to use 'legal' delays to postpone democracy (even their faux-democracy via faux-elections). And they will go on using delay tactic after delay tactic. They have no shame - so even the most ludicrous lies for a 'delay' will prove serviceable to them. 

 

How anyone can believe that this junta mob constitute 'the good, honourable, wise people' is way, way beyond the reach of my comprehension!

Edited February 8, 20188 yr by Eligius

8 minutes ago, Eligius said:

The delays are all calculated into the democracy-decimating process. From Day One they knew they were going to use 'legal' delays to postpone democracy (even their faux-democracy via faux-elections). And they will go on using delay tactic after delay tactic. They have no shame - so even the most ludicrous lies for a 'delay' will prove serviceable to them. 

 

How anyone can believe that this junta mob constitute 'the good, honourable, wise people' is way, way beyond the reach of my comprehension!

And yet (regrettably) there are those among us ...

16 hours ago, Eligius said:

The delays are all calculated into the democracy-decimating process. From Day One they knew they were going to use 'legal' delays to postpone democracy (even their faux-democracy via faux-elections). And they will go on using delay tactic after delay tactic. They have no shame - so even the most ludicrous lies for a 'delay' will prove serviceable to them. 

 

How anyone can believe that this junta mob constitute 'the good, honourable, wise people' is way, way beyond the reach of my comprehension!

Agreed. I have commented on a similar thread this morning about even more delays that could be 2 years or even more...according to the news.