By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES today (Nov.3) reached a unanimous resolution to have the authorities hold a public referendum over constitution amendment to see whether or not most people may agree to it.
A total of 323 MPs on both sides of the House chamber aisle voted for the motion to have the authorities conduct a public referendum to see whether most respondents may agree to the sought-after amendment to the junta-designed constitution promulgated in 2017.
The proposed constitution amendment is primarily meant to make it more democratic by, among others, abolishing the contentious power of all unelected senators to pick head of a post-election government alongside the elected MPs as had been the case following the 2019 election which landed the premiership of the coup junta head Prayut Chan-o-cha.
Nevertheless, today’s unanimous decision of the MPs in support of the arrangement by the Election Commission of a public referendum over the sought-after amendment to the junta-designed charter is yet to be endorsed by senators at a later date.
Only after the motion has been given a majority of yea votes from the senators will it be forwarded to the government for future action.
Pro-amendment MPs have suggested that such a public referendum be simultaneously conducted alongside the next general election to save costs for the polling agency and time for eligible voters to go to the polls.
Nevertheless, most of the senators, all of whom had been handpicked by the Prayut-led junta following the 2014 coup, had earlier expressed their objection to the charter amendment to the extent that they be completely deprived of the power to join ranks with the MPs in the voting for head of a post-election government.
CAPTIONS:
Top: A representation of the constitution overlaid on an image of a meeting of the House of Representatives. Photo: Matichon
Front Page: Nighttime view of Democracy Monument. Photo: Mark Fischer (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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