The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) is reluctant to seek a Constitutional Court ruling on disagreements in the organic bills on MP elections and senator selection.
There is a "conspiracy theory" that the bills were approved only to further delay the election roadmap.
The NLA's reluctance comes as authorities and politicians begin a new debate on whether the February poll date promise will be again postponed.
While Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam believes the general election, scheduled next February, will stay unchanged, politicians and Election Commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn argued the court's intervention will push the date to April at the earliest.
With these uncertainties, many NLA members are hesitant to back a move to petition the court for advice, though Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) chairman Meechai Ruchupan warned on Tuesday that failure to settle the controversy over the two bills at this stage may cause the government to start things over if the laws are announced in the Royal Gazette.
Many are worried they would be viewed as "going back and forth" because it was the NLA that approved the bills on electing MPs and selecting senators in sweeping votes last Thursday, NLA member Kittisak Rattanawaraha said Wednesday, after he sounded out opinions among his colleagues. It requires at least 25 NLA members to ask for a court ruling.
But the move may subject it to criticism that legislators are trying to delay the election, especially if the judges find parts of the two bills unconstitutional, Mr Kittisak said.
Many NLA members suggested the government seek the court's advice, he said.
NLA vice-president Surachai Liangboonlertchai said the NLA has not made any decision yet but "is only thinking about what Mr Meechai warns".
According to Mr Meechai, provisions in the bill on MP elections concerning holders of political positions and disabled people are still debatable.
The bill will disqualify holders of political positions if they fail to cast a vote without good reason, but the CDC views this would deprive them of their "freedom" to vote or not.
The law also allows election staff to help disabled people cast their vote, but this assistance can be in conflict with a requirement that ballot-casting must be made in secret.
Other controversial issues are in the bill on senator selection. The bill allows individuals to field themselves and organisations to field candidates for selection. However, the latter process may contravene the 2017 charter which stipulates that senators are installed from selections by and among candidates. Enabling organisations to have their candidates in the frame can challenge the requirement that senators are selected among themselves.
Also, allowing candidates to vote within their organisations may be prone to "selection collusion" rather than cross-group voting. These concerns were already forwarded by Mr Meechai to the NLA on Wednesday.
Despite these doubts, the NLA still easily passed the two bills. This reflected some irregularities in law enactment, observed deputy Democrat leader Nipit Intarasombat.
In his view, if NLA members were not certain about the constitutionality of the two bills, they should not have allowed such easy passage.
Their sweeping votes told another story. However, when Mr Meechai rang the alarm, they looked confused about what they did.
"These irregularities support a political ploy behind law enactment and the general election," Mr Nipit said.
It is not known how long it would take the court to look at the two bills. This raises speculation over a longer wait for the poll date.
The two bills are required by the constitution before an election can take place.
"I believe this will affect the [election] roadmap and it is a result of a conspiracy theory," Mr Nipit said.
He also wondered why Mr Meechai did not tell the NLA to settle the disagreements, though the bills were scrutinised jointly by the CDC, NLA and the Election Commission.
However, Mr Wissanu argued the issues were tabled in meetings but the results were determined by the majority of experts in these three organisations.
"The CDC drafted the two bills. The NLA came with its version. After they were jointly considered by the three sides, their final content rested on the majority," he said.
If the bills are eventually put before the Constitutional Court, this off-track process will not affect the roadmap, the deputy prime minister said.
Ten months before the February poll date is long enough for any changes or corrections, Mr Wissanu said. His belief did not convince Mr Somchai.
The election commissioners expect it would take at least another two months to amend the bills if the court rules parts of them are unconstitutional.