Wants issue raised at first cabinet meeting
PUBLISHED : 31 Aug 2023 at 04:00
The Move Forward Party (MFP) yesterday called on Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin to keep his promise to discuss the issue of holding a referendum on a charter rewrite at his first cabinet meeting.
The call came after the House of Representatives yesterday rejected the party’s bid to move up a motion on rewriting the entire constitution. The motion was the 33rd item on the House’s agenda.
MFP list-MP Parit Wacharasindhu said the party accepted the House’s decision and urged Mr Srettha to prioritise the proposed referendum in the new government’s first cabinet meeting, which could be as soon as Tuesday.
Mr Parit said the referendum must clearly ask whether the charter should be completely rewritten and if the body writing it should be directly elected.
Last November, the House endorsed an opposition-backed motion with 323 MPs voting in support of a charter rewrite referendum, but it was later shot down by the Senate.
The motion called on the government to hold a referendum to ask the public if a new constitution should be drawn up by a charter-drafting assembly of elected representatives to replace the current charter.
The MFP submitted a similar motion when the House re-convened and it was placed 33rd on the list.
In asking the House to move the motion up, Mr Parit said the matter would not affect the deliberation of other issues because MPs would only be asked to confirm what several parties had already supported.
Attakorn Sirilatthayakorn, a Palang Pracharath Party MP for Chachoengsao, disagreed, saying other motions were equally important and many dealt with pressing problems faced by farmers.
Khrumanit Sangphum, a Pheu Thai MP for Surin, said the proposed referendum would soon be discussed by the cabinet and the House should focus on people’s needs.
The MFP’s request to move the charter reform motion up for deliberation was rejected by 262 MPs, with 143 voting in support and one abstaining.
Meanwhile, the Internet Law Reform Dialogue (iLaw) group yesterday submitted a petition involving the rewriting of the 2017 constitution to the Election Commission, along with the signatures of 211,914 people supporting it. The EC said it has to verify the authenticity of those who signed the petition, not deal with the questions to be asked at a referendum.
Pheu Thai this week accepted for consideration iLaw’s petition on the referendum.