Three major parties say no to non-elected prime minister

[Lite Beer]

Three major parties say no to non-elected prime minister

BANGKOK: -- Three major political parties are unanimous in their opposition to the draft constitution proposed by the Constitution Drafting Committee which which states that the next prime minister needs not be an elected representative.

Mr Wirat Kalayasiri, chief legal advisor of the Democrat party, said Friday that, as a matter of principle, the prime minister who is to be chosen by the parliament must be an elected representative but with an exception that if there is a national crisis that an elected representative cannot be chosen for the premiership then there should be a leeway to allow an outsider to become prime minister.

Drafting the charter in such a way to open the door for an outsider to be appointed the prime minister will pave the way for money barons to dominate politics, said Mr Wirat.

Mr Somsak Prisanananthakul, advisor to Chart Thai Pattana party leader, said that having an outsider as prime minister should be an exception in case there is a national crisis that makes it impossible for an elected representative to be appointed prime minister.

Former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat of Pheu Thai party said having an outsider as prime minister represents a step backward. He said that political development in this country has already advanced to the stage that the prime minister should be an elected representative as stipulated in the 1997 charter.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/three-major-parties-say-no-to-non-elected-prime-minister

-- Thai PBS 2015-02-27

[greenchair]

It's nice to hear some of the smaller parties get some news time.

[lildragon]

elections would just be completely pointless if any old tom, dick or harry could come in on a whims notice.

Guess it would save the army from doing coups though, or at least, giving coups a 'friendlier' looking face.

[iReason]

Well said.

Stand up to the autocrats.

[ScarpoFongness4U]

That's an interesting way to make legitimate, any junta... Interesting try though

[Anthony5]

So once again Prayut try to fool the Thai people, by not putting himself up for election, but end up as PM anyway as the chosen one.

[ukrules]

Drafting the charter in such a way to open the door for an outsider to be appointed the prime minister will pave the way for money barons to dominate politics, said Mr Wirat.

He says this like it's never happened before under the old rules

[WitawatWatawit]

In May 1992 a lot of good people died because of this very issue - the appointment of Suchinda Kraprayoon as PM. How sad that they could even think about turning back the clock. If it's legitimacy that Prayut is craving, then let him be forward thinking and pave the way for a fair election. His place in history would be guaranteed if he was able to present Thailand to the world as Asean's most respected democracy.

[heybruce]

Prayuth has finally got the Democrats and PTP to agree on something. He's healing the political divide and divisions in society by giving everyone a common enemy.

[NeverSure]

The apologists should be along any minute now to explain why this is all good. I can't wait for the spin.

[halloween]

While we are at it, how about making the rule that the PM must be truly elected, by an electorate and not by the party list. Then all candidates can be publicly scrutinised, which would be far better than getting some party hack, or a billionaire megalomaniac who buys his way to power.

[ukrules]

While we are at it, how about making the rule that the PM must be truly elected, by an electorate and not by the party list. Then all candidates can be publicly scrutinised, which would be far better than getting some party hack, or a billionaire megalomaniac who buys his way to power.

All MP's are truly elected and therefore subject to scrutiny. This is the parliamentary system.

[halloween]

While we are at it, how about making the rule that the PM must be truly elected, by an electorate and not by the party list. Then all candidates can be publicly scrutinised, which would be far better than getting some party hack, or a billionaire megalomaniac who buys his way to power.

All MP's are truly elected and therefore subject to scrutiny. This is the parliamentary system.

BS. Anybody who has enough money can pay popular politicians to join his party and be elected via the party list WITHOUT going to the people who live near him and explaining his past actions, his source of wealth, or anything else.

[ukrules]

While we are at it, how about making the rule that the PM must be truly elected, by an electorate and not by the party list. Then all candidates can be publicly scrutinised, which would be far better than getting some party hack, or a billionaire megalomaniac who buys his way to power.

All MP's are truly elected and therefore subject to scrutiny. This is the parliamentary system.

BS. Anybody who has enough money can pay popular politicians to join his party and be elected via the party list WITHOUT going to the people who live near him and explaining his past actions, his source of wealth, or anything else.

Once their name is known they're wide open to all scrutiny.

[Thai at Heart]

Readying the country for democracy, Thai style

[BSJ]

"which states that the next prime minister needs not be an elected representative." An absurd concept that should not have been put on the table.

[Robby nz]

It would appear that they are now getting into the realm of trying to fix things that aint broke what with MMP and unelected PM.

All that was needed is to make sure nobody with convictions or bans for electoral fraud or corruption could ever get near parliament or the senate and strengthen the checks and balances so they couldn't be subverted as in the past.

Getting a clean parliament and senate under the previous method should be the priority.

Although I don't agree with the list MP thing after seeing it in action in both NZ and Thailand.

All MP's should be elected from a constituency by the people and be answerable to their electorate, list MP's are only answerable to the party and are a way of getting people, often those who are owed something, who could never be elected into parliament.

[NongKhaiKid]

The potential for an unelected dynasty to emerge just for a change instead of the Shin's elected version.

Simple, get or grab power then hand onto a relative or chosen sycophant.

Keep reassuring the public everything is done for their own good. of course.

[greenchair]

Come to the light.

Come to the light.

Everything will be peaceful and bliss.

??????

[smedly]

I think they are trying to deal with the issue that surfaced last year when PTP stood down but remained including Thaksins representative YL, but it is not the correct solution

When a government is removed or steps down then I believe the Mantle should be handed to the Senate to invoke emergency powers and put in place an emergency Cabinet to run things until such time as an election can be arranged - rules must be applied to such a Cabinet that limit powers and length of term - there is also no need for any of them to be elected, this would have completely removed PTP but would not have solved the greater problems of last year as the political system needed reform and the only way to do that was for the army to step in

Looking to the future and assuming that these current reforms achieve their goal and introduce Thailand to its first stable political system with accountability - checks and balances and far reaching powers to remove corrupt MP's and governments then what I have suggested above could work.

Edited February 28, 2015 by smedly

[chainarong]

This is indeed a dangerous path if they decide to elect an outsider as P.M. the people fought long and hard to break away from Junta style totalitarian government and here it is back again, at the beginning of the coup they promised so much and at the end delivered so little, one thing you can be sure of regardless of the surname of the PM the former title General would be a certain, junta power by stealth, you are not welcome back.

[scorecard]

I'm surprised at the reaction from somchai.

The non-elected PM idea would be an easy way for the get rich quick club to install the get rich club owners puppet or clone.

[Stradavarius37]

Nobody cares what these scumbag politicians think - Kill em all, let God sort em out.

[soalbundy]

The apologists should be along any minute now to explain why this is all good. I can't wait for the spin.

If the politicians are against it, it must be good for the people.

[toybits]

Why don't they just give up pretending to be a democracy?

[ChrisY1]

This indicates just how obvious it is, that the military are influencing the CDC ......to the point where which ever party wins, the military would most likely have the final say as to whom becomes the PM.........it's simply a stitch up for the voting population in Thailand.

[gandalf12]

Puts a totally new spin on the meaning of Democracy

[Hopho]

But what happens when the wrong people win again, for the fifth time in a row?

[Stargeezr]

Maybe Mr. Thaksin could be considered an outsider, who could get back

in power from abroad, just my musings on this subject.

[MW72]

Nice to see the politicians are in agreement about something. Perhaps they can get together and see what else they agree about. They might be pleasantly surprised. Maybe they could then look at what the disagree on and try to find some common ground. Maybe they could agree to work together for the benefit of the people. Maybe they could then tell the Junta to go f*** itself and they don't need them anymore.

Who am I kidding? They are politicians. Maybe pigs will fly.