EC bill thrashed out in court

The organic bill on the Election Commission may be referred to the Constitutional Court for a ruling on its constitutionality before it is presented for royal endorsement, according to election commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn.

Mr Somchai was trying to find a way to address the counterpoints the EC had raised with the bill, which have remained unresolved after the bill was approved by the National Legislative Assembly.

The counterpoints include the contentious issue surrounding the requirement to remove all the current election commissioners. The EC insisted the socalled “set zero” section in the bill was unjustified and against the rule of law.

The EC was represented in a joint panel, also comprising the NLA and Constitution Drafting Committee members, which was set up to discuss the counterpoints.

However, the joint panel decided the arguments were not valid and the NLA went ahead and approved the bill, which will be presented by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to His Majesty the King for royal endorsement in five days.

In the joint panel meeting, the EC defended its stance against the set zero section, finding it unfair and against good governance to remove the present election commissioners because the NLA has not put in place similar standards for other independent agencies.

Somchai Sawangkarn, an NLA member on the joint panel, explained the criteria for qualifications of election commissioners under the new charter differ from those of the current batch in terms of authority, so it was necessary to clear the decks, despite the criticism.

Other counterpoints relate to the EC’s power to organise and supervise polls which the EC insisted will be curbed if the organic bill is passed into law.

Yesterday, Mr Somchai said the Constitutional Court was authorised to step in and and consider if the organic bill is constitutional. This contradicted the NLA’s claim that the bill could be forwarded to the Constitutional Court for a ruling only through the cabinet or with one-tenth of NLA members voting to do so.

Political analysts, however, said neither the cabinet nor the NLA were likely to agree to put the bill before the Constitutional Court since no lawmakers had objected to the bill when the vote on it was called.

The EC will meet on Monday to work out possible legal and technical channels.