The National Legislative Assembly's (NLA) committee examining an organic bill on MP elections is likely to seek changes to a formula used to calculate party-list seats to ensure the cap of 150 seats is maintained.
Panel spokesman Taweesak Suthakavatin said some panel members have expressed concern the method proposed by the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) may cause a problem and have urged a review.
The CDC-proposed method is based on the German election system which allows the number of seats to be expanded. This could cause a problem for the Thai system which caps the total number of seats for MPs at 500 -- 350 for constituency MPs and 150 for party-list MPs.
Under the German system, if the calculation of party-list MP seats per constituency leaves a fraction of 0.5 or more, the number of MPs will expand by one. Since the Thai organic law imposes a cap of 150, a problem will result if this calculation system is adopted, he said. The panel's suggestion is in line with that of the Election Commission, which has expressed similar concerns. Mr Taweesak said the details for the calculation method have yet to be worked out.
The scrutiny panel has reviewed all 178 sections of the bill and agreed to seek changes to 17 sections, he added. Asked about concerns the NLA may reject the bills on the election of MPs and senators, he said the committee's job is to clarify the changes it has made to the bills and has nothing to do with the NLA's vote.
"The panel has added some elements to the organic bill and changed some aspects of the CDC's version, such as opinion polls related to the elections," he said. Mr Taweesak said the committee has until Jan 26 to finish its work. He expressed confidence it will meet the deadline. If it fails, it is required to adopt the CDC's version and submit it to the NLA for a vote.