Parliament, Move Forward Party submits 3 drafts of constitutional amendments to “erase the effects of the coup”, proposing to expedite the cancellation of NCPO announcements and orders, add a section on coup prevention, and cancel the 20-year national strategy, indicating that this is the first task of the new Senate.
Mr. Phrits Wacharasindhu, MP for the party list and spokesman for the Move Forward Party, submitted three draft amendments to the constitution to annul the effects of the coup to the President of the National Assembly to be included in the agenda of the National Assembly meeting.
Mr. Parit said that although the government of Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has promised to push for a new constitution, the process of drafting a new constitution may take at least another 1-2 years. Therefore, the Move Forward Party believes that in addition to pushing for the drafting of a new constitution to happen as soon as possible, the parliament should proceed with amending the constitution section by secti
on on important and urgent issues in parallel.
Meanwhile, this week, the new 200-member Senate has officially begun its duties. The Move Forward Party is using this opportunity to submit the first set of article-by-article constitutional amendments, which will be the new Senate’s ‘first mission’ to consider the amendments in a joint parliamentary meeting, which is expected to take place soon.
Mr. Prisht continued that the first set of articles of amendment to the constitution submitted by the Move Forward Party focuses on eliminating the consequences of the coup, which should be the issue that all political parties in the parliament agree on the most. The draft is divided into 3 versions:
Draft 1 repeals Section 279 of the interim provisions of the Constitution, which is the section that makes all announcements and orders of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and the NCPO leader legal and constitutional. Repealing Section 279 will allow the public, especially those affected by the NCPO announc
ements and orders, the opportunity to challenge the legality of such announcements and orders in cases where such announcements and orders result in violations of the people’s rights and freedoms.
Mr. Parit said that the Move Forward Party will push for the revocation of Section 279 of the constitution, in parallel with pushing for legislation at the act level to proceed with the revocation of NCPO announcements and orders that are not beneficial to the people. The Move Forward Party submitted the draft bill to revoke NCPO announcements and orders to the parliament since July 2023, but it was interpreted as a financial bill, so we have to wait for the prime minister to sign and approve it to the parliament since October 31, 2023.
The second draft is to add Section 16/1 to the constitution on prevention and resistance to coups, which has 3 main points: 1. Empowering all citizens to resist coups, whether it is protecting the rights of the general public or requiring state officials not to follow orders from s
uperiors who plan to seize power from the people. 2. Increasing the responsibility of all political institutions to jointly reject coups, such as prohibiting the Constitutional Court and all courts from endorsing coups. 3. Making coups have a ‘price’ for the perpetrators, such as prohibiting amnesty for coup members, specifying citizens as victims who can sue coup perpetrators for rebellion without a statute of limitations, and making all provisions in the section on prevention of coups a customary law that is in effect regardless of whether the constitution is torn up or not.
Mr. Parit said that the Move Forward Party will push for the addition of a section on prevention and counter-coup in the constitution, in parallel with pushing for other measures that are important in preventing coups, such as pushing for a law to reform the military to put the military under the civilian government, or campaigning for ideas to make all parties adhere to solving all problems through political mechanisms within the demo
cratic regime.
The third draft is to cancel the 20-year national strategy and the national reform plan through the cancellation of Section 65 and Chapter 16 of the constitution and related laws. However, the cancellation of the strategy and plan does not mean that the Move Forward Party does not agree with the country having a development plan or national administration plan that sets a vision for the country to move in which direction. But we want to cancel the national strategy and the national reform plan of the NCPO for 3 reasons:
The strategy and plan lack democratic legitimacy because it was drafted during the coup, with the NCPO overseeing the entire process, rather than being drafted during the elected government and through a process that included widespread public participation.
Such strategies and plans lack flexibility because they use the method of inserting mechanisms for strategies and plans into the constitution and laws, leading to the expansion of the bureaucratic state, instead of being
strategies and plans designed by political parties and governments that come from elections, according to the policies and directions for national development that have been mandated by the people through the voting booths.
Such strategies and plans risk being used as tools for harassment because they allow some parties to use mechanisms of independent organizations or the courts to punish state agencies that may be in conflict with each other on the grounds that such agencies have not complied with the constitution in terms of the national strategy and the national reform plan.
Mr. Parit concluded that after this, the Move Forward Party hopes that the President of the National Assembly will include the first set of draft amendments to the constitution (a total of 3 versions) on the agenda and call a joint meeting of the National Assembly to consider the draft amendments to the constitution as soon as possible. He also hopes that members of the National Assembly from the government, opposition, and the new
Senate will approve the draft amendments to erase the effects of the coup and to serve as a starting point for amending the constitution, section by section, on important and urgent issues, in parallel with pushing for a new constitution to be created as soon as possible.
Source: Thai News Agency
