Selection panel for EC members to be complete work in 70 days

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Selection panel for EC members to be complete work in 70 days

By The Nation

 

Pornpetch Wichitcholchai

 

The selection panel for new members of the Election Commission (EC) will complete its work on choosing a new batch of commissioner candidates within 70 days, panel member Pornpetch Wichitcholchai said on Monday.

 

Pornpetch, who is also president of the National Legislative Assembly, said this was 20 days earlier than the 90 days allowed for by law, after the first-round selection of seven commissioner candidates in total was shot down by the NLA late last month.

 

The NLA had voted overwhelmingly in a closed-door meeting to turn down all the candidates put forward by the selection committee and the Supreme Court. 

The EC law sets out that the commission will comprise seven members. Five are to be chosen by a selection committee, while the remaining two are to be picked by a meeting of the Supreme Court. 

 

The seven original candidates would have filled vacancies in the EC, the key agency responsible for holding elections.

 

An NLA source said after the assembly’s vote that legislators had raised questions over the suitability of the candidates as there were complaints about all of them. 

 

In addition, the selection of the other two candidates by the Supreme Court was also found to be controversial, he said at the time.

 

After the NLA’s rejection of the seven candidates, it had to submit a letter to the Supreme Court notifying it of the voting results and calling for it to begin its part in the selection process again.

 

The court, meanwhile, has issued a new regulation to make its selection process for two of the new EC members more clear. 

 

The court will hold a meeting on April 26 to select two commissioner candidates before submitting the names to the NLA, a source at the court said.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30341272

 

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