23 March 2016•Update: 28 March 2016
By Max Constant
BANGKOK
Thailand’s constitution drafting committee has given in to the ruling junta’s demands for a mostly appointed senate, after the committee’s chairman complained about “frightening threats” to force the clause’s inclusion, local media reported Wednesday.
Norachit Sinhaseni, the committee’s spokesperson, was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying, “the National Council for Peace and Order [NCPO] and the constitution drafting committee are meeting each other half way.”
Referring to the junta by its official name, he said that 200 senators would be appointed through the NCPO’s system while the other 50 “will be selected through our method as a trial to see if or how it can be improved.”
According to the final version of the draft, the non-junta appointed senators will be chosen by 20 professional and social organizations among their members.
It also includes the junta’s proposal that six seats be reserved for military and police chiefs.
The junta-penned clause had stated that a 250-member senate be fully appointed by a committee composed by Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha and other junta members.
It also stipulated that the senate would have the same power as the House of Representatives in censuring a government in a confidence debate and would be able to censure government bills -- the only point the drafting committee did not accept.
“The power to hold a no-confidence debate should belong to the House of Representatives. Under the parliamentary system, the MPs decide if a government should stay or go,” Sinhaseni said Tuesday.
The committee’s chairman, Meechai Ruchupan, had earlier appeared reluctant to accept all of the junta’s proposals.
“Only parts of the demands will be included in the draft charter. Real power lies with the people,” he said in a speech Monday at an academic institute.
He also spoke of “frightening threats” against the body in relation to the changes requested by the military, but did not provide any details.
Since proposing the changes earlier this month, the junta has come under tremendous pressure from politicians and political parties as well as local media.
The last time the Thai senate was fully appointed was during the “semi-democratic” regime of former Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda from 1980-1988.
Between 1988-1997, the senate was partly appointed and partly indirectly elected, and then after a new constitution was written in 1997, it was fully elected.
That was until a coup in 2006 overthrew the elected government of Thaksin Shinawatra, brother of Yingluck Shinawatra, the prime minister of Thailand's recently deposed government.
The draft is to be approved by the committee, returned March 29 to the military government -- led by Chan-ocha, who seized power in the 2014 coup against Yingluck’s administration -- and then submitted for a popular referendum Aug. 7.
If the draft is passed by the committee, and again at the Aug. 7 referendum, elections will take place at the beginning of next year, however the junta has made no provision for the draft stalling.
If such a case arises, the junta could pick any constitution or draft constitution from the past, amend it, and impose it on the country.
