CDC STANDS FIRM ON PM RULE

The Constitution Drafting Committee will press ahead with a proposal that would require political parties to announce their prime ministerial choices before elections.

CDC vice-chairman Apichart Sukhagganond said the panel’s proposed rule — that political parties must unveil up to five prime ministerial candidates before the poll — remains unchanged.

There will be no requirement that candidates for PM must be party members and political parties can nominate the same candidates but need to get their consent in writing, he said.

There could be one or up to five names on each party’s candidate list. The lists will also be submitted to the Election Commission.

The new rule has drawn flak from political parties that see no point in disclosing candidates before the poll.

They criticised the proposal as an attempt to allow the nomination of a non-MP as prime minister.

According to Mr Apichart, the CDC is maintaining a firm stand on its proposal that a single ballot be used for both constituency and party-list MPs, instead of two ballots as was the case previously.

At this stage the CDC, chaired by Meechai Ruchupan, has agreed to limit the total number of MPs at 500, 350 of whom are to be elected from constituencies and 150 from the party list.

All votes each party receives in all constituencies nationwide will be combined to determine the percentage of seats to be allocated to each party, based on the total number of 500 House seats.

Mr Apichart said the Meechai version of the draft charter will be concise with fewer sections than the one drafted by the previous CDC headed by Borwornsak Uwanno. It will be simple and easy to understand.

He also defended the committee’s independence, saying it receives no instructions from the National Council for Peace and Order on how or what to write in the draft charter.