The Move Forward Party (MFP) today proposed a revision to Section 272 of the Constitution in order to reduce the power of the Thai Senate and the position of its senators in selecting the Prime Minister of Thailand.
Under Section 272 of the Constitution, senators appointed by the last military-led government have the privilege to sway the PM vote. Section 272 permits Members of Parliament (MPs) and senators, constituting no less than half of all members, to propose who becomes PM, which may not essentially be the person or party who received in the General Election.
Despite profitable a General Election, a main ministerial candidate just isn’t assured to turn out to be PM. Opposition events, led by Pheu Thai Party and MFP, have made a number of attempts to amend this rule because of its contradictory nature inside the democratic course of. These efforts, nonetheless, have been unsuccessful thus far due to different laws that grant power to the senators.
MFP leader Pita Limjaroenrat, who received the most votes within the General Election, couldn’t become the new PM of Thailand as a outcome of he did not garner sufficient votes from MPs and senators. Pita needed 375 and he only acquired 321 votes.
MFP supporters and members expected the Senate to vote for Pita based on the election results. However, solely thirteen senators cast their votes in favour of Pita while 34 senators expressed disapproval, and 159 abstained from voting altogether.
The next Parliament meeting to pick the model new PM is on July 19 but Pita’s probabilities of securing extra votes from MPs and senators appears unlikely. Consequently, the get together proposes a revision to Section 272 of the Constitution so as to secure the party’s victory.
MFP Secretary Piyabutr Saengkanokkul made known that the get together has 151 MPs to propose a revision of the rule in Parliament based on the law. Members from different events also agreed to the revision, which might lead to Pita becoming the brand new PM.
During yesterday’s Parliamentary session, sure MPs and senators made it clear that they’d support Pita if he and his party abandoned their intention to amend Section 112 of the Criminal Law, which pertains to offences towards the royal family. However, MFP secretary Chaitawat Tulathon firmly asserted that the party would not abandon their pursuit of revising Section 112. He emphasised two key reasons for this stance. Firstly, it is the campaign that the celebration used to garner votes from people. Secondly, even when the difficulty of Section 112 was no longer on the table, Chaitawat doubted that the senators and MPs would turn to vote for Pita. Concealed said…
“What we are thinking now is transferring forward on what we stand for. We will do our greatest to be answerable for the trust that individuals gave to us. We will never surrender so long as all of the individuals continue to fight with us. I believed that all of the eight parties will hold each other arms tightly and transfer ahead together.”