The government will seek an extraordinary parliamentary session later this month to deliberate a bill on a national referendum in its second and third readings, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said yesterday.
He said the government will propose the session be held on March 17-19.
The national referendum bill, sponsored by the government, passed its first reading in December last year and is necessary for the charter amendment process.
Among charter amendments requiring a referendum are changes to Chapter 1 which contains general provisions, Chapter 2 which deals with the monarchy and Chapter 15 which covers constitutional amendments, including Section 256.
Charter amendment bills which passed their second reading late last month seek changes to Section 256 to pave the way for the setting up of a Charter Drafting Assembly (CDA) whose members will supposedly be elected. An interval of 15 days is required before a third reading vote can take place.
This third reading is also expected to take place during the planned session, if the Constitutional Court rules next week that parliament has the power to initiate a complete charter rewrite.
However, if the ruling scheduled for March 11 says parliament has no such power, the motion to amend Section 256 is unlikely to make it to a third and final reading.
"The extraordinary session must take place to scrutinise the national referendum bill. We will waste more time if we don't have the law in place when a referendum is needed," Mr Wissanu said.
Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, leader of the Srang Thai Party, yesterday expressed concern the public would eventually be left out of the charter amendment process.
According to her, if the Constitutional Court rules against changes aimed at setting up a charter writing body, amendments would be spearheaded by MPs and senators only.
"Without a CDA, charter amendments will be through parliament, without public participation. And the changes will consolidate the power of those in power," she said.