Prawit flags ‘partial lift’ on political ban

Parties will be allowed to recruit members

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon says he will meet politicians late this month to discuss a partial lifting of the ban on political activities.

Gen Prawit said yesterday Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has assigned him to chair the meeting with politicians to consider what restrictions could be eased first.

Gen Prawit said the ban will only be partially lifted so parties will be allowed to hold meetings and recruit members. Holding election campaigns will still not be permitted until the organic bill on the election of MPs takes effect, he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Kreangam said a meeting called for today between the Council of State, the Election Commission and the Constitution Drafting Committee is different from the forum to be held late this month. No parties are taking part in today’s meeting.

The meeting will discuss Order No.53/2017, issued by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha as head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to amend the organic law on political parties, and problems associated with the organic law on parties, Mr Wissanu said.

Under the order issued on Dec 22 last year, members of parties are required to produce letters confirming their membership and pay party fees by April 30 or lose their status, but parties argued it violates basic rights of party membership and creates unnecessary burdens.

Meanwhile, a possible solution has been floated to prevent an anticipated delay in the primary votes to be organised by individual parties contesting the next election.

A source in the EC said the primary votes are tied to the designation of constituencies. However, the designation cannot go ahead until the organic bill on election of MPs takes effect.

Since the organic bill will not go into effect until after 90 days of it being endorsed by the King and published in the Royal Gazette, parties were concerned

they will not have enough time to arrange the primary votes.

The source said the constituencies need to be re-drawn under the new organic law to determine how many MPs seats will be up for grabs in each province.

The number of MPs on offer in the constituencies in each province will give parties a clear idea how many primary votes they will need to hold.

But the constituency designation is to be put on hold due to the 90-day wait, which will in turn delay the primary votes.

Political parties also asked the NCPO to lift the ban on parties so they could recruit new members to vote in the primaries.

Many parties predicted they will run short of members to register to vote for their respective primaries if they cannot recruit new members.

Through the primaries, registered members of parties will choose the parties’ potential candidates, one of whom will be chosen by the party executive board to stand in the election.

The law decrees that parties need to have at least 100 registered members each to vote in their primaries in each province.

The EC source said a solution was for the EC to invoke the existing law on election of MPs, which has been in effect since 2007.