Revised draft constitution resubmitted to His Majesty for consideration

>> The draft constitution has been resubmitted to His Majesty the King and its revised content will be revealed soon, according to Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha submitted the revised charter on Friday and, according to the 2014 interim constitution, the King will consider it within 90 days, he said, adding the amended content would be publicly disclosed soon.

The cabinet will be officially informed about it on Tuesday, he said, adding that the roadmap to a general election remains intact.

“All steps [in the roadmap] are unchanged. It’s only that we can’t fix the date of each step,” he explained.

The date of the promulgation of the new constitution will be the start of those steps. The laws on national reform and national strategy must be completed four months after that. Organic laws will be completed within six months from that date, he said.

The general election date can be set once the organic law on elections is proclaimed.

“Therefore, don’t ask for the exact date because we don’t know the exact starting date yet,” Gen Prayut added.

After the draft constitution was endorsed in a referendum last August, it was submitted to the King, who advised there were three to four provisions that needed to be amended to fit in with the monarch’s authority, and he sent it back in January this year.

The government insisted the suggested changes involved only the prerogative of the King, not the rights and liberties of people.

Meanwhile, National Legislative Assembly (NLA) deputy chairman Peerasak Porjit yesterday said the NLA’s ethics committee is ready to look into a complaint against seven NLA members accused of excessive non-attendance.

Mr Peerasak said he will call a meeting of the ethics panel to consider the matter as soon as the complaint reaches the ethics panel. The issue has received public attention, he said.

On Thursday, Srisuwan Janya, secretarygeneral of the Association for the Protection of the Constitution, filed a complaint accusing the seven lawmakers of violating NLA rules and an interim charter provision governing NLA meetings. The complaint was lodged with the Secretariat of the Senate, which acts as the NLA’s secretary-general.

According to NLA rules, members must attend at least one-third of the votes within a 90-day period in order to remain an NLA member unless they have submitted leave of absence letters to the NLA president beforehand.

According to the Internet Dialogue on Law Reform (iLaw), seven NLA members have fallen foul of the rule.

But NLA chairman Pornpetch Wichitcholchai previously defended the seven lawmakers, who risk ejection from the assembly after being accused of excessive absences.

Mr Pornpetch said after the iLaw allegation came to light, he assigned the Secretariat of the Senate to look into the issue. The secretariat found the seven accused members had submitted leave of absence letters.

According to Mr Pornpetch, NLA members who ask to be absent from assembly meetings must either be sick or have to perform other official duties.

The seven assembly members include former permanent secretary for defence Preecha Chan-o-cha, a younger brother of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha; Adm Pallop Tamisanon, a former navy chief-ofstaff; Somsak Chotrattanasiri, the director of the Bureau of the Budget; and Distat Hotrakitya, the secretary-general of the Office of the Council of State.

The others are Supant Mongkolsuthree, honorary chairman of The Federation of Thai Industries; ACM Jom Rungsawang, the air force chief; and Adm Na Areenich, the navy chief.

Mr Supant said his absences were caused by having to attend meetings chaired by Gen Prayut and his deputy, Somkid Jatusripitak, as well overseas ones.

He insisted he submitted leave of absence letters each time he did not attend an NLA sitting.

Mr Distat said he sometimes missed voting sessions because of his duties at the Office of the Council of State.