A compromise appeared to be have been struck Wednesday after the organic bills on the election of MPs and select of senators passed a review by a joint panel set up to reconcile differences between related parties.
Representatives of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC), the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) and the Election Commission (EC) had been working to iron out contentious points in both bills.
The tripartite panel Wednesday finished its work and is due to return the reviewed bills to the NLA for a vote on March 8.
They were written by the CDC and went through scrutiny in the NLA which made changes to them, according to Adm Tharathorn Kajitsuwan, the panel spokesman.
The changes had to be put up for review by the CDC as well as the EC, the poll organiser. The CDC had voiced its reservations about the NLA altering certain content in the bills while the EC thought there could be practicality problems in organising elections which some of the changed content were feared to have brought.
The joint panel, comprising five NLA lawmkers, five CDC members and the EC chairman, has announced decisions it has made regarding the two bills.
The panel has resolved that the organic bill on the selection of senators will revert back to the CDC's original version.
The panel voted to have Senate candidates from 20 professional and social groups instead of 10 proposed by the NLA. The Senate candidates will be recruited through an open application rather than a mix of open applications and nominations by state agencies as suggested by the NLA. Also, the cross-candidate group voting necessary for the shortlisting of Senate candidates, which the NLA wanted to replace with an intra-group voting system, will be reinstated, according to Adm Tharathorn.
Cross voting will produce a pool of shortlisted candidates who will be presented to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), which will pick 194 to be senators. Six more Senate seats are reserved for armed forces leaders.
In addition to these 200 senators, the NCPO will choose another 50 from a non-open application process.
Meanwhile, differences of opinion in the joint panel over NLA scrutiny of the organic bill on the election of MPs have been resolved.
According to the tripartite panel, the CDC had its way and restored some content while the NLA managed to stand its ground on other issues. The panel also seconded an EC proposal to change some issues in the bill.
The panel has reworded a section to make it compulsory for public and political office holders to vote in elections or they will lose their seats.
The clause which allows entertainment performances during poll campaigns was removed on the suggestion of the EC which thought it would be hard keeping track of a candidate's entertainment budget.
The electioneering budget to be allocated to political parties by the EC will vary according to the sizes of the parties. Election voting times have also been changed to 8am to 5pm instead of from 7am and 5pm.
The court can also declare a contest in any constituency null and void and order a re-election.