By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT bid to increase the number of constituency-based MPs and decrease that of party-listed MPs today (Sept. 10) finally sailed through for use in future elections.
In a joint House/Senate meeting, 472 MPs and senators voted for the constitution amendment bill, compared to 33 legislators who voted against it and 187 others who abstained from voting in its final reading.
The successful amendment calls for the total of the constituency-based MPs to rise from 350 to 400 and that of the party-listed MPs to drop from 150 to 100 whereas voters in future elections will be given two ballots, one for the constituency candidates and the other for the party-list candidates instead of one ballot as used in the 2019 election.
The amendment bill did not only gain a simple majority of lawmakers from the House of Representatives and Senate combined but one-third of the total 250 senators, accounting for 84, as stipulated by parliamentary rules. The 472 legislators who voted for it included 323 MPs and 149 senators.
Government and opposition lawmakers had separately proposed 13 bills to amend the 2017 charter earlier drafted by a pro-military panel but only one passed its final hurdle today to become law.
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Top: The representation of the 1932 constitution at the top of the Democracy Monument. Photo: NNT
Home Page: Nighttime view of Democracy Monument. Photo: Mark Fischer (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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