The cancellation of the long-promised meeting this month between the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and political parties is a worrying development. Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam rushed in to assure that there will be such a meeting, eventually. This delay is a serious matter. Mr Wissanu, backed strongly by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, said the NCPO-politicians meeting would bring an end to the ban on political activities. The indefinite delay on this meeting thus keeps the public in the dark about just what the government and the junta are up to.
The announcement there will be no meeting between politicians and the NCPO is only the most dramatic in the past week about alleged but hugely unclear "problems" the regime is experiencing. Mr Wissanu, who said local elections would be held this year as a sort of "practice session" for national polls, now has backtracked and says such elections may not be held in 2018. Last Friday, out of the blue, the Election Commission's secretary-general said the EC needs two months to redraw the boundaries of constituencies in 20 provinces. The election for Bangkok governor also is on indefinite hold.
Any one of these problems is an obvious risk to the iron-clad promises made by Gen Prayut and his closest cabinet advisers of an election in February. If they are taken together, however, they add up to a serious problem -- for the public. Gen Prayut must clarify immediately whether his guarantee of an election in February still holds. Because Mr Wissanu and others have provided a list of roadblocks littering the prime minister's roadmap.
Gen Prayut should be clear that any delay of the election beyond February of 2019 is unacceptable to the public. Barring some major calamity, polls must be held within the next eight and a half months, or 258 days. To assure the public of this, the prime minister must take two steps.
He must immediately set an election date, and he must instruct the NCPO to end its ban on political activities. The regime must pay heed to complaints by several parties which demanded it lift a ban that has obstructed them from making preparations for the poll. It must also abolish other orders that have hindered the return to democracy, especially those involving freedom of expression.
In truth, the election process referred to so many times as a roadmap came to an end six days ago. The final hurdle was the Constitutional Court's written decision that cleared the last possible legal controversy over the charter and its organic bills on elections. It was, therefore, a national shock when Mr Wissanu declared that a meeting this month with political parties was impossible.
Mr Wissanu wants the public to know that the government's problems are attributable to red tape that is mounting up. He actually said that it is "impossible" to explain all the difficulties the government faces. Even though the roadmap itself is now done, there are many "mini roadmaps" needed. Such a statement is meaningless to the public which deserves a full explanation.
According to Mr Wissanu, who is the legal expert for the cabinet, the junta still plans to meet with representatives of political parties, it's just that there is no date.
It is noteworthy, then, that right after affirming a June meeting with political parties, Gen Prayut similarly repeated earlier guarantees about an election date. His exact words about the national election, spoken last Tuesday, were: "It will be in February 2019."
The prime minister owes the public a clear promise of what day in February the election will be held on, with political parties and civic groups free of junta control.