The Constitution Court ruled by a majority vote on Wednesday that the draft amendment to Section 190 concerning international agreements was unconstitutional, dealing another blow to lawmakers supporting the Pheu Thai Party.
Constitution Court judge Charan Phakdithanakul reads the verdict of the draft amendment to Section 190 on Wednesday. (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)
One day after the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) pressed charges against 308 former MPs and senators of misconduct in connection with the charter amendment on the composition of the senate, the court ruled that the conduct of the lawmakers approving the draft amendment was unlawful.
This time it involves 381 MPs and senators, who passed it in the third reading on Nov 4.
In their verdict the Constitution Court judges said the draft amendment was in violation of at least six sections of the charter, including Section 68, which prohibits anyone from overthrowing the country's democratic system with the King as head of state.
Its main thrust was to give more authority to the government in negotiating and signing international agreements on grounds that the present section delays this effort.
Section 190 of the constitution requires any international agreement which could affect sovereignty, public interest on social, economic and trade issues, and security needed public participation. The framework of discussions must be approved by parliament before the government enters into negotiations for transparency, and the agreement signed with other countries has to come back for parliament's approval.
The court threw out the attempt to change the section on grounds that it will keep the public out of vital issues that affect the people, damage the checks-and-balance principle between the administrative and legislative branches and lead to a lack of procedural transparency.
The amendment would have given the government excessive power in signing international agreements with other countries by bypassing public input, and any problems that occurred afterwards could not be resolved, the court said.
The petition to the court to rule on the issue was forwarded by Wirat Kallayasiri, a legal expert of the Democrat Party and a former MP for Songkhla province.
Mr Wirat told FM101 news programme before the court's verdict that he had not ruled out a bid to lodge a complaint with the NACC to press charges against the 381 MPs and senators for attempting to violate the charter.
Jacquechai Chomthongdi, a FTA Watch coordinator, warned of the dangers of the draft amendment. He said it would have opened a loophole for the government and officials to enter into international agreements which could benefit big corporations at the expense of the public interest, as the amended section would allow the government to bypass public scrutiny.
"We had been thinking about whether senators should come from elections or not. But we never realised that we could have ended up paying more for medicines as a result of this amendment,'' he told FM101.