Listing Thai PM candidates is 'the right approach'

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NEW CHARTER
Listing PM candidates is 'the right approach'
KASAMAKORN CHANWANPEN
THE NATION

Drafting chief defends move requiring PM candidates t be listed by parties

BANGKOK: -- CHARTER drafting chief Meechai Ruchupan has stood firm over the requirement that parties list candidates to be prime minister, saying it is not a door for a non-elected PM.

The top government job would be determined by a three-stage process involving political parties, voters, and the House of Representatives, he said.

"It was a misunderstanding that people said this [the PM list] would be for an outsider [non-elected] PM," he said. "Those who can choose the candidate are firstly the party, then the voters, and lastly the lower House."

Meechai reiterated that the aim of the proposal was for voters to know beforehand who the candidates to be national leader are.

"It wasn't like we would stipulate in the draft who in particular could become PM," he said.

Last week, the Constitution Drafting Commission and its subcommittee studying executive structures discussed the method proposed for selecting premiers - each party submitting a list of five candidates during election campaigns.

The idea, together with the proposed single-ballot electoral system, drew much criticism. Some politicians view it has an attempt to pave the way for non-MP premier.

PM Prayut Chan-o-cha hit back at critics yesterday, saying true democracy must not be an illusion but getting honest people to run the country.

He said under the proposal, political parties would have the sole responsibility of nominating PM candidates.

He added people should not confuse illusion with true democracy. "We must have a kind of election that gets good people to run the country so that the country is safe and sound and has no conflicts - not hand power to someone who jeopardises the country."

He said if people still clung to conventional methods, they would likely get the same type of leaders.

Meechai said political parties could set out their own selection rules for candidates to be PM. They could set the rule that the candidates must be an MP or a party member.

However, he stressed that they should bear in mind that under the proposed mixed-member apportionment system it was possible for a party not to have a party-list MP if their winning constituency candidates had equalled or exceeded the total seats they could gain and that were calculated to reflect their true popularity.

He said that on the day the PM candidates are proposed by parties, nobody was an MP yet because the process would take place before an election.

Meechai reiterated that whether or not the PM would be an MP was the parties' business. He said the CDC would not stipulate in the charter draft the type of candidate each party should propose, but the qualifications of the candidates could not be less than those of MPs.

The CDC head said that any political creativity put forward by the drafters was to tackle the four major issues facing the country including the public being uncertain over whether candidates had previously been elected for their true popularity or because they had bought votes.

He said there was also a lack of understanding about parties' policies and the direction taken by voters, while voters' voices became meaningless after they cast their ballots.

Meechai said the public viewed politicians as seeking only their own vested interests in a bid to profit from vote buying they had invested in.

The old rules and regulations could not solve those problems, he said, so it was necessary for the current drafters to create new measures and mechanisms to deal with them.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Listing-PM-candidates-is-the-right-approach-30273091.html


-- The Nation 2015-11-17

[chainarong]

Generally people vote for a party with a charismatic leader they generally they want to lead the country , they not necessary give a toss about the local candidate , so what you are doing is taking the peoples privilege away and adopting your own selfish closed door approach and although you have been reminded just yesterday that this has been tried before with disastrous results, man was it a disaster , especially for 350 plus now deceased students, there is no Democracy in this corrupt system and members of the CDC know it........................

[smutcakes]

Every election i have seen here it has been clearly known who would be the PM should whichever party win, in fact i have never even seen it raised as an issue.

The fact they are kicking up such a song and dance about this, which seems like of minor importance, makes me a little suspicious of the true motives.

[Srikcir]

"PM Prayut Chan-o-cha hit back at critics yesterday, saying true democracy must not be an illusion but getting honest people to run the country."

If Prayut really beileved in what he said, he should have formed his own political party to run in the 2014 election, if he thinks of himself as an honest and good person.

[Issangeorge]

For all intensive purposes the PM hasn't been elected for a long time. What's the difference in picking a leader of your party and putting them on your party list, or just picking a leader and making them PM. Either way the voters don't really get a chance to vote for the PM, the party decides who the PM is going to be, and that's it. Unlike say in Canada or Britain, where the party leader runs in a constituency and the voters in the constituency vote him/her in or out.

[Thai at Heart]

The nominated party leader should be prepared to sit as PM. End of discussion.

[Issangeorge]

The nominated party leader should be prepared to sit as PM. End of discussion.

Yes I agree, but it doesn't really matter if he is an MP or not, because of the party list system they have in Thailand he would just be put at the tip of the list and be an MP, it's not as if he us really being elected. The thing is the party should nominate their choice for PM before the election so people know who they are voting for.

[LannaGuy]

the MPs should elect their leader it's obvious unless they are heading for a ................. Pres? if not a PRIME Minister is just that - a first amongst equals