The Election Commission's decision to seek a Constitutional Court ruling on its method of calculating and allocating party-list seats will not affect the endorsement of official poll results on May 9, EC chairman Ittiporn Boonpracong said on Friday.
He said that asking the court to rule on the matter is the best course of action to clear confusion about the issue, adding that this will not affect the EC's plan to endorse at least 95% of the poll results by May 9.
Under the constitution, parliament will convene its first meeting within 15 days of at least 95% of the poll results being announced by May 9. On Thursday, the poll agency issued a statement saying it had sought the court's ruling on two issues associated with its calculation method.
There are two laws stipulating how the 150 party-list MP seats should be distributed.
The laws are Section 91 of the constitution and Section 128 of the organic law governing the election of MPs.
The decision follows complaints that Section 128 of the organic law may breach Section 91 of the constitution, according to the statement.
The EC wants the court to rule whether the EC can calculate in a way that will award party-list seats to political parties that garnered fewer votes than the number required to get a party-list seat under the complicated mixed-member apportionment system used in the March 24 election.
The commission also wants the court to rule if such a calculation method complies with Section 91 of the constitution, according to the poll agency's statement. Mr Ittiporn said on Friday that the calculation method was proposed by the EC's Office, based on Section 128 of the organic law. The method was also consistent with that of the Constitution Drafting Committee.
This calculation method would be able to allocate all 150 party-list seats to parties eligible for the seats, but the method may conflict with Section 91(4) of the constitution, which stipulates that any party with fewer votes than is required would not qualify, he said.
"In light of this, the calculation based on Section 128 of the organic law needs to be clarified," he said.
The calculation method proposed by the EC's Office was based on preliminary poll results, not the official results, Mr Ittiporn said.
Confusion has erupted over the EC's calculation of party-list seats with several small parties that won fewer than 71,000 votes expected to be awarded party-list seats at the expense of larger parties.
