EC says hazy details on election a threat

A provision in the new charter that deals with the timing of the general election is causing dissent between the Election Commission (EC) and Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) and must be clarified so the election results are not at risk of being annulled, officials say.

The bone of contention is Section 268, which stipulates that when the charter’s four organic laws have been enacted the EC must “complete the organising of the general election” within 150 days.

The four laws relate to the composition of the EC itself, political parties, the Senate, and the election of MPs.

But the CDC and EC seem to have different ideas about what tasks must be wrapped up within the 150-day deadline.

The committee wants the final task to be having all the ballots counted while the EC insists this must also include an official announcement of the poll results — which could require several more weeks or even months.

EC chairman Supachai Somcharoen said the agency asked to conduct the poll may ask the Constitutional Court to clarify the matter.

“This issue is important and everything must be clear-cut,” said EC member Somchai Srisutthiyakorn.

“For example, if someone filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court to interpret [Section 268] after the election, and the court ruled against the EC’s interpretation of it, the EC would have to take responsibility for that,” he said.

CDC spokesman Norachit Sinhaseni said the EC abused this law when MPs were elected under the 2007 charter because it announced the results way after the poll, thus breaking the deadline. The charter had a similar provision (Section 296).

This stipulated that MPs must be elected within 90 days of the charter’s organic laws being enacted. The EC set the poll for December 23, 2007 — still within the 90-day deadline — but released the official results after the deadline had passed, he said.

But there was no problem in that case because no one challenged the legality of the action, Mr Norachit said.

Meanwhile, CDC chairman Meechai Ruchupan yesterday stood by the body’s request for an initial sum of 1 million baht to establish parties under the organic bill on political parties.

The bill is now being scrutinised by a National Legislative Assembly (NLA) committee, which has until June 6.

It is one of the three organic bills that must be passed before a general election can be held next year.

Some members want to slash the sum to 500,000 baht while others say prospective party founders should be allowed to set up parties first and pay later, sources said.

Mr Meechai said this is not realistic as setting up a political party and organising related activities is financially cumbersome and unlikely to happen without the proposed initial capital.

“Setting up a political party is like setting up a company,” he said. “The founders must have a stake in it. If you don’t own that, you cannot ask the people around to invest with you.”