National Legislative Assembly (NLA) whip Wallop Tungkananurak says he supports accepting an impeachment bid against the former House and Senate speakers and holding a full and fair debate.
The assembly is scheduled to meet on Thursday and vote on whether to accept the impeachment request submitted by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).
The request has touched off a heated debate among the legislators who were hand-picked by the country's military rulers. Some NLA members question the legality of the request, while others say that going ahead with impeachment would look like a witch-hunt and threaten reconciliation efforts.
The anti-graft body has recommended the impeachment of former Senate speaker Nikhom Wairatpanich and former House speaker Somsak Kiatsuranon. At issue was the role they played in supporting an attempt by the former government to amend the 2007 charter to make the Senate fully elected.
The NACC found Mr Nikhom and Mr Somsak committed malfeasance and violated the anti-graft law.
At Thursday's meeting, the NLA would allow members to fully debate the impeachment request before a free vote is held, said Mr Wallop.
He insisted there would be no lobbying during the voting on the impeachment request. As for himself, he said he would vote to accept the request for consideration as the NACC had followed the proper procedures in submitting its case to the NLA.
The NLA whip said he would decide later whether the grounds for impeachment under the 2007 constitution were valid.
Critics of the impeachment bid claim it is no longer valid because the 2007 charter was abolished after the May 22 coup. However, the NACC has argued that the legal basis for impeachment is malfeasance under the still-intact anti-graft law.
Mr Wallop brushed aside remarks by Thaworn Senniam, a former Democrat MP and key figure in the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), that the NLA would face pressure from PDRC supporters if it turned down the impeachment request.
Members of the assembly were not under pressure to vote one way or the other, he said.
The assembly members would look into the facts and legal arguments that the NACC provided before deciding whether to accept the request or not, he said.
However, some NLA members are concerned about being seen as taking part in a purge to eliminate the "old power" political figures that the PDRC opposed during its protests. They say reconciliation will be impossible if the country gets sucked into a cycle of score-settling every time the administration changes hands.
If the case against the two former speakers is accepted, it would set a precedent and the NLA would also have to accept an impeachment bid against former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The NACC has accused Ms Yingluck of dereliction of duty for failing to stop corruption and massive losses in her government's rice pledging programme.
If impeached, the two former speakers would be barred from politics for five years and face trial in the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Office.
Vicha Mahakhun, an NACC member, said earlier that the anti-graft agency was unlikely to renew the impeachment bid against Mr Nikhom and Mr Somsak if the NLA rejects the motion.