PUBLISHED : 17 Aug 2023 at 04:00
The Move Forward Party (MFP) will submit an urgent motion asking the House of Representatives to pass a resolution seeking a public referendum on rewriting the constitution.
MFP list-MP Parit Wacharasindhu said yesterday the proposed referendum would ask people if they agree with setting up a charter-rewriting assembly, with members publicly elected to draft a new constitution.
He said two key elements must be addressed — whether the charter should be entirely rewritten and if the writing body should be directly elected.
He said these are the questions put forward in the opposition-sponsored motion approved by the House of Representatives last November that the Senate shot down.
Mr Parit said the party has been campaigning for a rewrite of the 2017 charter because it lacks legitimacy and contains several flaws that have led the country into a political crisis.
If the resolution is passed by parliament, the cabinet will be asked to arrange the referendum. He said that if people agree with entirely rewriting the charter, three rounds of referendums are required.
The MP said he hopes other parties pledging to amend the charter will support the motion so the issue can be debated, even though the Senate can still reject it. He insisted the charter rewrite would not change the country’s governing system, when quizzed about critics’ concerns that Chapters 1 and 2 could be affected.
Chapter 1 contains sections defining Thailand as a single, indivisible kingdom with a democratic regime and the King as the head of state. Chapter 2 contains sections pertaining to the royal prerogatives.
According to the MP, Section 255 of the current charter prohibits changing the country from a democracy with the king as head of state and the type of state from a single state.
“Whenever a new charter was written in the past, Chapters 1 and 2 were revised, but it didn’t lead to a change in the governing system. Moreover, the charter allows changes to be made to the two chapters, but not without a referendum,” he said.