List MPs risk approval delay

List MPs risk approval delay

Charter court to rule on EC formula Wednesday

People turned up to cast their vote during advance voting at Matthayom Ban Bang Kapi School of Bangkok’s Bang Kapi district on March 17. (Photo by Wichan Charoenkiatpakul)
People turned up to cast their vote during advance voting at Matthayom Ban Bang Kapi School of Bangkok’s Bang Kapi district on March 17. (Photo by Wichan Charoenkiatpakul)

The Election Commission's (EC) endorsement of party-list MPs is still in doubt pending a Constitutional Court ruling on Wednesday on the EC's formula to calculate and allocate party-list MPs for political parties.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said on Tuesday that if the court rules that the EC's formula is unconstitutional, the EC must postpone the endorsement of party-list MPs and use a new formula.

The EC is expected to announce and endorse the party-list MPs on Wednesday.

Asked what the EC would do if the Constitutional Court rules against the agency's calculation and allocation method of list seats, EC deputy secretary-general Mr Sawaeng Boonmee said the EC office was fully prepared to deal with the issue.

No matter what the ruling is, the EC office will come up with a proper calculation method and present it to the commission for consideration, Mr Sawaeng said. The EC on Tuesday approved all existing 349 constituency MPs as it rushed to meet the MP endorsement deadline so parliament can convene by the end of May.

The remaining seat was left vacant after the EC issued an orange card barring Surapol Kiatchayakorn, the Pheu Thai candidate for Chiang Mai's Constituency 8, from contesting an election for one year for giving a monk 2,000 baht in cash and a wall clock.

A fresh election will be held for the constituency on May 26 and Pheu Thai is prevented by law from fielding a new candidate.

Of the approved constituency MPs, 136 are from Pheu Thai, followed by Palang Pracharath (97), Bhumjaithai (39), Democrat (33), Future Forward (30), Chartthaipattana (6), Prachachat (6), Action Coalition for Thailand (1) and Chartpattana (1).

Mr Sawaeng said that even after the endorsement, the EC still has the authority to investigate and give orange cards to the endorsed MPs who are suspected of violating the election law, and call election re-runs.

He also said the EC was investigating about 60 complaints regarding the qualifications of election candidates, and 400 complaints over poll fraud. An EC source earlier said a total of 27 parties should receive at least one party-list MP based on the EC's calculation method.

The formula adheres to the calculation method initiated by the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC), the source said. However, it appears to favour small parties that have garnered fewer votes than the number required to get a seat under the complicated mixed-member apportionment system, according to political observers.

The Constitutional Court accepted the Office of the Ombudsman's request for a ruling on the constitutionality of the EC's formula to calculate party-list MPs for political parties and will issue its decision on Wednesday.

The Ombudsman's Office asked the court to rule whether the formula in Section 128 of the organic law on the election of MPs contradicts the method in Section 91 of the charter. The request was based on a petition submitted to the office by Wiratana Kalayasiri, a former Democrat MP.

The issue of which formula should be used in calculating the number of party-list MPs for each party is crucial after unofficial results showed that the anti-coup coalition had managed to gain only a few more seats than the pro-military side.

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