House Speaker Chuan Leekpai yesterday rated the overall performance of this 25th House of Representatives as “satisfactory”, saying most of the bills put before the government had been passed despite a slight hiccup during the House’s final session.
Speaking to Mong Ratthasapha (Parliament Watch) on Thai Parliament Television yesterday, Mr Chuan said the House had completed all eight sessions, with the last finishing on Feb 28, while its four-year term is due to end on March 23.
Hence, it could be said that this House has completed its legislative duty already, while its four-year term — counted from March 24, 2019, the date of the last general election — will be fully served if there is no dissolution before March 23, said Mr Chuan.
Consisting of up to 26 political parties, the highest number in the history of the Thai House of Representatives, this House managed to operate smoothly up until around the end of its last session when collapse after collapse occurred due to a lack of quorum, said Mr Chuan.
Aside from comprising the most political parties ever, more than half of its members were first-time MPs, and some new parties had no MPs with any prior experience, he said.
Despite these negative factors, the House got off to a good start and successfully passed almost all the bills proposed by the government to support its planned work, he said.
The frequent collapses towards the end of its last session, however, meant certain useful bills were not passed into law, including a bill on rail transport and a bill on cheques, he said.
Those repeated lack of quora were the responsibility of both the coalition government and the opposition alike, he said.
In related news, three new list-MPs, two from the Democrat Party and one from the New Economics Party, yesterday reported for duty to the House Secretariat.
They replaced fellow list-MPs who resigned from their posts.