The Constitution Drafting Committee has endorsed a proposal giving voters the power to impeach political office holders if similar action fails in parliament.
CDC chairman Borwornsak Uwanno said yesterday the CDC has accepted the proposal put forward by a member of the public.
It calls for the House of Representatives and the Senate to jointly launch impeachment proceedings. The politicians impeached would be banned from politics for five years. Previously, only the Senate had this authority.
The new step in the proposal covers the failure by a joint House-Senate session to impeach a political office holder.
They would remain on an “impeachment list”, and at the next election their names would appear in a special section of the ballot papers to allow voters to decide whether to impeach them.
If they are impeached by more than half of all voters nationwide, they would be banned from politics for life, Mr Borwornsak said.
A CDC source said the proposal was endorsed at a committee meeting on Dec 25. The committee agreed to include the proposal in the new charter draft, the source said.
The proposer was not named. The proposal, included in a two-page letter, came to light when input on how to improve impeachment procedures was sought by the CDC.
The writer said impeachment bids by the Senate under the 2007 constitution had never gained more than three-fifths of the votes needed to succeed because the upper house was under pressure from political interference.
Efforts to pursue cases by other independent organisations and the courts also met with resistance from politicians' supporters, the letter said.
Therefore the solution is to give voters the power to impeach.
The writer said politicians in a democracy are voted into office by the public, and it is therefore reasonable for the public to have the mandate to impeach them if they are guilty of breaking the law.
If adopted, the proposal would make political parties more careful about choosing and fielding candidates. If they field a candidate named on the impeachment list, it could put the party’s reputation and popularity at risk, the writer said.
Another advantage of an impeachment list is that political office holders named could show public spirit by stepping down and gaining sympathy from the voters who would not vote to impeach them. That way they would avoid being banned from politics for life.
“This approach allows the public a more active role in politics and puts all politicians under closer public observation,” the writer said.
If a named candidate wins in either the constituency or party list systems and is impeached by more than half of the voters nationwide, the EC will have the authority to cancel their victory and endorse the next most popular candidate.