The government is considering legal channels to address a possible impasse likely to be caused by the primary vote system, a new element introduced in the organic law on political parties.
The primary vote system was among several issues discussed at Thursday's meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC), and the Election Commission (EC) to thrash out issues relating to poll preparations, Mr Wissanu said after the meeting.
Under the organic law on political parties, which took effect on Oct 8 last year, parties must organise primaries where members choose the candidates they want to stand in both constituency and party-list elections.
Critics are concerned primaries are a time-consuming process that will prove costly to parties and leave them little time to prepare for the next election. Also, they would put small parties at a disadvantage due to their limited resources for establishing branches and bringing in members.
Mr Wissanu said he will inform four key issues raised at the meeting to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).
They include allowing parties to hold meetings, setting up party branches -- a prerequisite for holding primaries, the demarcation of constituencies and the management of poll scheduling.
Addressing the primaries, Mr Wissanu said the NCPO will be informed of any problems that will likely be caused by them and solutions must be found to fix them.
"Most [politicians] said they did not want to hold primaries due to three factors tied to the system -- the demarcation of constituencies, allowing them to hold meetings and recruiting members. If these issues remain unsolved, they thought the primaries should be suspended. But if they are solved, they may want the primaries to take place," Mr Wissanu said.
Mr Wissanu said that if there are any legal hurdles to demarcating constituencies, the NCPO and the cabinet will discuss the best legal channel -- a bill passed by the National Legislative Assembly or an executive decree issued by the cabinet or the invocation of Section 44.
A source in the EC previously said the primaries are tied to the demarcation of constituencies. However, demarcation cannot go ahead until the organic bill on the election of MPs takes effect.
Since the organic bill will not go into effect until 90 days after it is endorsed by the King and published in the Royal Gazette, parties were concerned they will not have time to arrange the primaries.
The source said the constituencies need to be re-drawn under the new organic law to determine how many parliamentary seats will be up for grabs in each province.
The number of seats available in the constituencies in each province will give parties a clear idea as to how many primaries they will need to hold.
But constituency designation is to be put on hold due to the 90-day wait, which will in turn delay the primaries.
Political parties also asked the NCPO to lift the ban on their activities so they could recruit new members to vote in the primaries. Many predicted they will be short of registered members to vote in them if they cannot recruit new members.
In the primaries, registered party members will choose potential candidates, one of whom will be chosen by the party executive board to stand in the election.
Under the organic law, parties which want to field candidates in the constituency system must set up branches or appoint representatives in those constituencies.
Each branch must have at least 500 members in its jurisdiction while representatives are appointed in constituencies where there are no provincial branches of parties and where there are more than 100 party members.
To select constituency candidates, parties will set up selection committees to recruit candidates.
These committees will vet applicants and forward their names to party branches or representatives for a vote.
The two candidates who get the highest number of votes will then be presented to party executives for endorsement.
Party executives have the right to choose the person who comes second if they so wish, though they must justify the decision.
As for the nomination of candidates under the party-list system, the selection panel draws up a list of up to 50 names before branch heads and representatives hold meetings for party members to vote. Each party member can vote for up to 15 candidates.
