Court to rule on MP election law today
Politicians confident poll won’t be delayed
The Constitutional Court will today rule on the constitutionality of the organic law on electing MPs, the green light for which could lead to the general election taking place in February next year.
It is the last of the 10 organic laws required by the constitution to be promulgated before an election can take place.
The Constitutional Court will give its ruling on whether two sections in the organic law on MP elections are constitutional or not. The two issues it has been considering are Section 35 on the revocation of political rights for those who fail to vote and Section 92 on allowing others to mark the ballot card at a polling booth for voters with disabilities.
“If the court says the clauses are unconstitutional, they must be fixed, but I don’t think it will take a long time,” Jade Donavanik, an adviser to the Constitution Drafting Committee said.
“Unless there is an attempt to delay [the elections], the result should not have an effect [on the election roadmap],” he said, adding that although the maximum period until an election could be 11 months, it is still possible that the election will be held in February next year as intimated by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
Democrat Party legal expert Wiratana Kalayasiri said how the court rules on the case would not affect the roadmap to the election. Moreover, the points that the court have been considering would affect comparatively few voters, and the ruling would not affect the election results.
“If the court rules the organic bill is constitutional, it will be a sign of moving toward the election,” Mr Jade said.
According to the process, the prime minister will have to submit the bill for royal endorsement.
After the law is published in the Royal Gazette, it will take 90 days to come into effect, according to a National Legislative Assembly resolution. After that, the constitution requires an election to take place within 150 days.
Similarly, Chartthaipattana Party key figure Somsak Prissananantakul said that after the court’s ruling, moves would be made to promulgate the laws in order to allow enough time for the election to happen in February 2019 as scheduled.
“What we were most worried about was the organic law on the selection of senators, which has been passed already,” he said. “The power holders cannot use the Constitutional Court’s ruling to postpone the election. But I don’t know if they will have other excuses, after many postponements already.”
The Constitutional Court on May 23 ruled unanimously that the organic bill on senators passed by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) did not contravene the 2017 constitution.
“Now we are waiting to see the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the National Council for Peace and Order’s (NCPO) Order No.53/2017 [on political parties]. If it is ruled unconstitutional, all must be switched back to the organic law on political parties. That will be better,” he said.
“Everybody wants to have an election now. It’s been four years already and there’s no reason to delay. Even if the court says the bill must be dropped, the lawmakers can expedite fixing it. They can use the old draft and fix the two sections,” he said.
“Chartthaipattana is ready for the election. We want it quickly,” added Mr Somsak.
Meanwhile, Chartthaipattana director, Nikorn Chamnong, said he believes the NCPO will expedite the process for the elections once the court says the organic laws are fine.
“We can see that the government expedited the passage of the organic law on senator selection as the election timeline according to the roadmap is drawing near. The NLA is asking if it can forward the draft to the government while it has not received the ruling from the court officially,” he said adding that other agencies involved must also follow suit.
Mr Nikorn said it is impossible to set the date for the election before royal endorsement of the laws. However, another postponement of the election would be unacceptable.
A spokesman for the NLA whip, Jate Siratharanont, yesterday expressed confidence that the MP bill would be ruled legal by the court, with no clauses deemed unconstitutional.
The bill sailed through the NLA in March, but 27 members decided to petition the court to look into its legality after the prime minister said he wanted to make sure that it would not violate the constitution — a move some suspected might be a ploy to further delay the general election.
The main concerns they cited were one clause that allows election staff or others to help disabled people cast their vote, and another that bars anyone who previously failed to vote in a national election without due cause from being appointed as a political office-holder.
Although the court may order some changes to the bill, Mr Jate said, the adjustments would not derail the plan to hold a general election in February next year.
Meanwhile, former Pheu Thai MP for Maha Sarakham Prayut Siripanich said he doubted the constitutionality of the organic law as the charter says voting must be done directly and confidentially, therefore, allowing other people to mark the ballot for them would be problematic. However, he did not know how the Constitutional Court would rule on this.
“I don’t understand. Many law experts were involved [in drafting the law] but why did they leave this loophole which could lead to political problems?” he said.
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said a meeting of the government, the NCPO, the NLA, the Election Commission and political parties set for June might be postponed pending the passing of the laws.