The People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) on Tuesday submitted a proposal to the Constitution Drafting Committee, calling for the restructuring of the police service, public participation in the election process and eradication of corruption and vote buying.
PDRC spokesman Akanat Phromphan leads other PDRC leaders to submit recommendations on the charter drafting to the Constituion Drafting Committee. (Photo by Kitti Woraranchai)
Leading PDRC members including Akanat Phromphan, Sathit Wongnongtoey, Thaworn Senneam, Suriyasai Katasila and Samdin Lertbutr handed their proposal to CDC chairman Borwornsak Uwanno on Tuesday.
Speaking before meeting the CDC, Mr Akanat, as PDRC spokesman, said his group’s recommendations to the charter drafting panel came from views gauged from PDRC supporters who had fought with it against the Yingluck Shinawatra administration for 204 days.
The main ideas of the proposal are that the police force must be restructured to prevent the Royal Thai Police Office from centralising power, and people be given a bigger role in the election process by monitoring and supporting political parties.
State funding should be provided for political parties and the party-list MP system scrapped beause it does not relate to the people, said Mr Akanat. The party-list system also opened ways for political donors to wield greater influence over political parties.
Mr Akanat said vote buying must be eradicated, and politicians found to buy votes should face a lifelong political ban. There should be no statute of limitation in corruption cases and politicians found involved in graft should be banned from politics for the rest of their lives.
The PDRC spokesman urged the government and the charter rewriting panel to give more opportunities for people and opposing groups to take part in the drafting process, or through public hearings to be held under martial law, in order to make the new constitution acceptable to all.
He believed that providing venues for people to give their views on the new charter and national reform would lead to political stability.
Mr Akanat said in reply to questions he did not know whether a political amnesty would be included in the new constitution. If it were included, he could not say whether people would come out in force to protest against it - as they did when the amnesty bill was proposed by the previous Pheu Thai-led government.