A niggling election issue

Government critics may be nearing the end of their tether after prodding the regime relentlessly and fruitlessly into removing the political activities ban, the biggest obstacle to the next election.

Some political insiders claim the regime is running out of excuses to justify keeping the ban.

They insist the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) will do political parties a huge favour if they rescind it now, which would allow the parties time to gear up for the election, which is expected to be held in February.

However, some sceptics said they are anticipating the poll being delayed until May, in light of the view recently echoed by the Election Commission that the date could be pushed to early May at the latest.

Even with that delay, the parties would have less than a year in which to prepare for the poll, which promises to be more tedious and complicated than any previous election due to new rules, including mandatory primary voting, introduced for the first time by the constitution.

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva suggested time was not on the side of political parties and that it should be incumbent on the regime to let them get on with the business of recruiting new members who will vote in the primaries.

The parties have only been permitted to reconfirm memberships of existing members which have dwindled considerably, in the Democrats’ case, from millions to tens of thousands. This is because members are required to pay a fee to qualify as registered members who are legally eligible to vote in the primaries.

The NCPO has said that although it has not yet lifted the political activities ban, it has relaxed some of the restrictions, such as giving the green light to new parties to assemble and elect their executive boards.

However, critics insist the relaxed rules only apply to newly established parties while leaving older ones to contend with small headcounts.

Mr Abhisit suggested he may have failed to see the logic behind the regime’s excuse for not scrapping the ban.

Earlier, the regime said the ban should be lifted after two organic bills, one on the election of MPs and the other on the selection of senators, are enacted.

The Democrat leader suggested it would be wrong to link the passage of the two bills with the lifting of the ban, however.

He reasoned that parties’ poll preparations, which also take into consideration the primary voting, would proceed under another bill governing political parties.

In other words, the date on which the two aforementioned bills are finally enacted should have no bearing whatsoever on parties’ ability to prepare for the poll.

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said this week that a resolution on the ban issue would be thrashed out when the NCPO and the parties meet for a second time to discuss the poll preparations in September.

Mr Abhisit said a timely removal of the ban would be productive for political reform.

The sooner new members are recruited by existing parties, the quicker they can come in and have a say in the running of the parties’ affairs.

The charter aims to get rid of the old practice where parties are dominated by a handful of financiers who dictate both their and national policies.