CDC keeps charter clause for women

The Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) has decided to keep a clause in Section 76 of the draft charter requiring that women make up at least one-thirds of candidates which parties put up for selection as MPs.

A source in the CDC meeting held yesterday said the committee debated the section widely before voting 20 to nine to retain it.

The draft charter specifies that parties, when nominating candidates for their members to select, must hold a primary vote.

The section also makes it mandatory for at least one-thirds of the candidates which any party proposes to its members for the internal vote to be women.

Some charter drafters had asked for this requirement to be dropped, arguing it may not always be possible for a party to find enough women willing to run, according to the source. The issue led to the vote at yesterday’s meeting. CDC spokeswoman Suphatra Nakhaphiew said the parties must obey the law of the land, and their MPs along with it.

Also, the meeting decided to delete the words “political groups” from the same section. The deletion stems from the CDC’s earlier stance that only parties can file candidates in elections, making any mention of political groups in such a context redundant.

The CDC also agreed on Section 64, which requires environmental impact assessment (EIA) and health impact assessment (HIA) studies to be carried out on any project or activity with possible adverse effects on the environment, natural resources and people’s health, according to the source. The studies must be independent and compliant with proper academic practice.

Meanwhile, a recent CDC-sponsored opinion poll concluded that a coalition government was best placed to solve political conflicts.

The poll, jointly held by the National Statistical Office and King Prajadhipok’s Institute, was conducted from May 1-31 among 77,160 people nationwide.

It is the second CDC-sponsored poll to gauge people’s opinion about the new charter. The first poll was in February.

On the question about what to do if the country slips back into political chaos after the next election, 50% of respondents refused to comment, while 17% said a coalition government would be the solution as political power to oversee national administration would then be distributed among the parties.

Also, 52% agreed that an amnesty should be granted to protesters who took part in the political demonstrations from 2005 and 2014 except for those facing charges of corruption, lese majeste, and criminal acts.