Draft charter in Constitutional Court’s hands at third attempt

Thammarat Thadaphrom

 

 

BANGKOK, 3 September 2016 (NNT) – The revised draft constitution has been handed to the Constitutional Court for review after the third attempt by the charter rewrite committee. 

The spokespersons for the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC), Norachit Sinhaseni and Udom Rathamarit, confirmed that the draft charter which has recently gone through a revision process had been successfully submitted to the Constitutional Court on the team’s third attempt. They said the first two attempts failed not because of the charter contents, but rather because of problematic procedures of the submission. 

The Constitutional Court will in time give its verdict on whether the revised draft is in accord with the secondary question attached to the nationwide public referendum. 

The question along with the draft constitution itself was approved by the majority of the public on August 7th. 

The additional question asked whether or not members of the upper house should be allowed to join members of parliament (MPs) in the selection of a prime minister.

 

 

-- nnt 2016-09-03

 

 

1. Exactly what can be 'problematic about the procedures governing submission'? The CDC is simply transmitting the document the Constitutional Court for review. Maybe it was put in the mail with insufficient postage?

 

2. Why wasn't this process used prior to the referendum?  Thai citizens should have been givien assurances that the document was in proper form before they went to the polls.

 

3. Will the CDC or the Constitutional Court make available all the changes to the document as a result of incorporating question #2 from the referendum.

 

4. Thai citizens actually voted on a 'conditional' approval of the constitution when the second question was approved. If there is any controversy about how the documents was amended, a second referendum should be held.  But I won't hold my breath. 

Rubbish bin..

In my opinion the second or additional question of the August 7 referendum has not been approved by the people.

 

Why?

 

The main question and the additional question are mutually exclusive. Logically, one cannot approve the main question AND the additional question at the same time.

 

In the vote the main question got more YES votes than the additional question. That can only be construed to mean that a majority prefers the solution as included in the main question.

 

On a formal point of view, the whole procedure of a main question and a simultaneous and mutual exclusive additional question is so fundamentally flawed that the whole referendum should be declared null and void.

 

The proper way to do it would have been a 2 step referendum:

 

1. Step: (In case the new referendum is accepted,..) Which solution would you prefer: A or B ?

 

2. Step: After either A or B has found a majority, there is a main referendum: "Will you accept the constitution with solution A (or B )as part of it?"  Yes/No

 

This is the only and only logical way to find the true will of the people. This procedure, BTW, is practiced in many democracies around the world.

 

 

21 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The question along with the draft constitution itself was approved by the majority of the public on August 7th. 

keep repeating that until you believe it. ... 

36 minutes ago, dominique355 said:

On a formal point of view, the whole procedure of a main question and a simultaneous and mutual exclusive additional question is so fundamentally flawed that the whole referendum should be declared null and void.

Agreed, although the process under which the charter was drafted has been fundamentally flawed, so the referendum was meaningless from the start. 

I'll be curious to see how the CC decides to make it easier for Prayuth to become an appointed "PM"....