Thai Democrats To Continue Fight Against Charter Change Bill

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POLITICS

Democrats to continue fight against charter change bill

Somroutai Sapsomboon,

Piyanart Srivalo

The Nation

Party threatens legal challenge if govt continues to push for vote on the bill on Friday

BANGKOK: - Wiratana Kalayasiri, leader of the Democrat Party's legal team, said that if the government continued trying to push through the charter-amendment bill, the Democrat Party would file a complaint with the Constitution Court under Articles 154 and 7.

Article 154 of the penal code says that MPs and senators had the right to resist even after the House has passed a bill. According to the Article, if no less than a tenth of the total members of both Houses file a petition with the Constitution Court, the prime minister has no option but to delay the process of seeking royal endorsement for the bill.

Since Article 154 of the penal code only allows normal bills to be held back, not one related directly to charter amendment, the petition would also have to refer to Article 7.

Article 7 of the penal code says that in the absence of a provision in the Constitution, decisions shall be made in accordance with the constitutional practice in a democratic regime that has a government with the King as head of state.

On Friday, the Constitution Court issued an injunction to suspend the third reading of the charter amendment bill after the Democrat MPs and senators filed a petition with the court. The MPs used the Constitution's Article 68 to say that the charter amendment bill would overthrow the democratic regime of a government with the King as head of state.

The government's latest action is to go ahead with the charter amendment bill and discuss the issue of the injunction this Friday. The government said the injunction was illegal as it interferes with the legislative power. Hence the government is planning to set a date for House voting after it was delayed yesterday.

A Pheu Thai Party source said party MPs had decided to go ahead with the third reading of the charter amendment bill, though they would postpone voting on the reconciliation bill to the August 1 House session.

"We lost our focus last week, but are now firm in our stance and will go ahead," the source said.

Some experts agree with Pheu Thai, saying that the Constitution Court does not have any legal power to delay the third reading of the charter amendment bill. They say that the law can only be held back if the court makes a judgement, but on Friday it was just an injunction.

Meanwhile, Wiratana said the Democrats would bring up three issues in court. The first issue would be that the Constitution's Article 291 only allows some points in the charter to be amended, not for the entire Constitution to be rewritten.

Secondly, the House does not have the authority to assign the job to the Constitution Drafting Assembly, and thirdly, the government has been in far too much of a hurry to push through charter amendment bill without waiting for a public hearing on the issue.

-- The Nation 2012-06-06

[pakorn7]

Laugh while it last.

The 91 dead is catching up them soon.

[animatic]

Laugh while it last.

The 91 dead is catching up them soon.

Indeed the Thaksin political machine and Red shirt leaders,

must eventually be held accountable for making those unnecessary deaths so sadly inevitable.