Rivals push for electoral changes

The Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) and the Pheu Thai Party are both pushing for a revision of the electoral system with the use of two ballots and a 1% minimum voting requirement for the allocation of party-list seats.

PPRP list-MP Paiboon Nititawan, chairman of the panel examining the draft charter amendment bill, said his party has a proposal ready while adding they will call for a two-ballot system and seek a minimum of party-list votes that a political party must win in order to be distributed party-list seats.

“Political parties should get at least 1% of all the votes cast so they are eligible to be allocated party-list seats and they must field candidates in at least 100 constituencies to qualify to get any party-list seats,” he said.

Mr Paiboon also said the draft should be ready for the second and third readings by parliament early next month.

Chonlanan Srikaew, the Pheu Thai MP for Nan, admitted his party’s proposal is similar to that of the PPRP. He said the proposal includes the two-ballot system and minimum requirements that political parties have to meet to be eligible to be allocated party-list seats.

Under the party’s proposal, if a political party gets less than 1% of votes, it is also not qualified to get a party-list seat.

However, Pichet Sathirachawal, leader of the Prachatham Thai Party, said he did not agree with the PPRP and the Pheu Thai Party.

Mr Pichet said that smaller parties would fight to have a lower threshold for a minimum of votes.

He said the minimum requirement should be lowered from 1% to 0.02% to be fair for small parties.

“If the 0.02% minimum requirement is used, small parties can be allocated a seat with only around 70,000 votes,” he said.