Pheu Thai firm on charter change plan

Pheu Thai firm on charter change plan

Amendments will goto public referendum

The ruling Pheu Thai Party has reaffirmed its plan to amend the constitution but said coalition partners will be consulted about the move.

House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranon yesterday said the constitution which was promulgated in 2007 needed to be amended as several of its parts were undemocratic.
The change should be carried out by an assembly made up of members of the public to ensure that the people would have a say in its content, he said.
Mr Somsak denied, however, that the amendment plan was aimed at paving the way for an amnesty for deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who has been sentenced to two years in jail and is now living in self-imposed exile overseas.
Pirapan Palusuk, a Pheu Thai MP for Yasothon and a member of Pheu Thai's legal team, said the party would push for a public referendum which could be held in three months to ask the people which they preferred between the present constitution, and the 1997 charter abolished by the 2006 coup.
If the referendum showed the majority of the people wanted the 1997 constitution to be reinstated, the government would base the changes on that version of the charter.
To be able to make sweeping changes to the constitution, the government would need to amend Section 291 of the charter first.
Section 291 sets conditions for the 2007 charter's amendment. The amendment of Section 291 would pave the way for the appointment of a new constitution drafting assembly.
Brainstorming sessions would then be held to discuss who would be in the constitution drafting assembly, he said.
Mr Pirapan said the Pheu Thai legal team has been studying laws to find out whether the government could hold a public referendum on charter amendment.
If the laws do not allow such a referendum to be held, the government would move ahead with the process to appoint the constitution drafting assembly.
It would do its job, and any changes would be put to a public referendum, however.
On the timing of the amendment process, Mr Pirapan said key party members would have to discuss it later on as well as consulting executives of other coalition parties.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said her government does not expect the process of amending the 2007 constitution to be completed in one year.
The amendment process would be based on the principle of public participation, she said, adding that the House of Representatives would take care of procedural details.
The prime minister also brushed aside the allegation the changes were intended to favour her elder brother Thaksin.
Critics should wait to see details of the amendments before criticising, she said.
Meanwhile, Pheu Thai party-list MP Weng Tojirakarn said that following the changes to the 2007 constitution, independent organisations set up under the constitution must be scrapped.