Supreme Court picks election commissioners

By The Nation

 

 

Supreme Court judges on Thursday re-elected their two candidates to become Election Commission (EC) members although both had been rejected by the legislative assembly.
 

A general meeting attended by 176 Supreme Court judges at its main auditorium voted to select the court’s chief justice Chatchai Chanpraisri and judge Pakorn Mahannop as the court’s nominations.

 

The court will then submit its two nominations to the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) to decide whether to endorse them to be among a new set of seven election commissioners.

 

In addition to Chatchai, 64, and Pakorn, 62, three other senior judges also contested to become the court’s candidates.

 

In February, the NLA voted down both Chatchai and Pakorn as well as five other candidates nominated to become new members of the EC.

 

The seven candidates were selected by a screening committee from 41 names None of them obtained the required support from at least half of the NLA members.

 

The NLA informed the Supreme Court about the decision not to endorse all seven nominations The court therefore needed to convene a general meeting to select its two candidates

 

Observers noted that the Supreme Court’s candidates were rejected because their election by the judges could not be regarded as being done “openly”, as required by law

 

Observers said the NLA had decided to reject all the candidates in order not to embarrass the court

 

Before the next round of voting on Thursday, the court altered its regulations to make the election “open”, according to a source.

 

The voters had to put an “X” next to their favoured candidates on the ballot paper.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30344032

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-04-26

It's all in the eyes.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Observers said the NLA had decided to reject all the candidates in order not to embarrass the court

What about the candidates ?  Did anyone worry about embarrassing them ?  A lot of indirection, condoning of hierarchy, tip toeing, parlor games and going through motions.  Not really something the average Thai could have a lot of faith in. 

7 hours ago, webfact said:

A general meeting attended by 176 Supreme Court judges

176 Supreme Court judges?

 

UK 12

 

USA 9

 

Jobs for the boys?

Supreme Court renominates candidates rejected by NLA

By THE NATION

 

The Supreme Court. Photo credit: Court of Justice

 

JUDGES OF the Supreme Court yesterday re-elected their two previous nominees for the Election Commission despite both of them having been rejected by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA).
 

A general meeting attended by 176 Supreme Court judges at its main auditorium voted to select the court’s chief justice, Chatchai Chanpraisri, and judge Pakorn Mahannop as the court’s nominations. 

 

The court will submit its two nominations to the NLA to decide whether to endorse them to be among seven new election commissioners.

 

In addition to Chatchai, 64, and Pakorn, 62, three other senior judges also contested to be the court’s candidates. 

 

In February, the NLA voted down both Chatchai and Pakorn as well as five other candidates nominated to become new members of the EC.

 

The seven candidates were selected by a screening committee from among 41 names None of them obtained the required support from at least half of the NLA members.

 

The NLA informed the Supreme Court about the decision not to endorse all seven nominations The court therefore needed to convene a general meeting to select its two candidates.

 

Observers noted that the Supreme Court’s nominees were rejected because their election by the judges could not be regarded as “open”, as required by law.

 

Observers said the NLA had decided to reject all the candidates in order not to embarrass the court. 

 

Before the round of voting yesterday, the court altered its regulations to make the election “open”, according to a source.

 

The voters had to put an “X” next to their favoured candidates on the ballot paper.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30344072

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-04-27

Years ago, I met a court official. She was different and my student. How did this happen? Normally, I taught 8-9 year kids both in the states and in Thailand. But, one of the moms at the international school where I worked was a big wig at a university and was working on a project.

 

Since, I had taught the mom’s daughter she asked for my help. She was a smart lady and had first approached my school administration for approval and they said fine. I was elected. This large university had been told to organize a special class for judiciary people to improve their English.

 

Phones weren’t big back then, but silly stickers were. For the entire two hour class, every Monday morning for a month, this government employee would sit at her desk and play with stickers. She never participated in any activities. She didn’t really need to, her English was excellent.

 

The only time she spoke to me was concerning the stickers. She explained where she had bought them, how much she paid for them and why they were in certain piles.

 

I never did figure out what was going on with her. Perhaps, I was judging her wrongly...

8 hours ago, BigBadGeordie said:

176 Supreme Court judges?

 

UK 12

 

USA 9

 

Jobs for the boys?

Bigger troughs in Thailand !

13 hours ago, BigBadGeordie said:

176 Supreme Court judges?

Just doing some research on US Supreme Court, it hears about 100-200 cases a year with only about half involving oral arguments. Cases originate from the lower lower federal systems (District and Circuit Courts) and sometimes from State Supreme Court.

It's my impression that in Thailand:

• the Supreme Court in contrast to the US Supreme Court can be petitioned directly to hear a case bypassing the need for both a lower district and circuit court decision.
• the Supreme Court can conduct its own investigation of a case and as such is not compelled to rely solely on what is presented to the court by either the plaintiff or defendant.

Thus, the number of cases reaching the Thai Supreme Court might number in the high hundreds. That would require more supreme court judges than the US.

22 hours ago, webfact said:

Supreme Court picks election commissioners

Title is very misleading and should have read:

"Supreme Court submits EC nominations to NLA"

9 hours ago, webfact said:

The court will submit its two nominations to the NLA to decide whether to endorse them to be among seven new election commissioners.

Frankly, for the sake of avoiding a perceived conflict of interest (ie., an implicit sense of loyalty), I'd prefer the Court have no involvement in the EC selection process.