The Constitutional Court has accepted the Ombudsman's request for a ruling on the constitutionality of the Election Commission's formula to calculate party-list MPs for political parties and will rule next Wednesday.
The court on Thursday announced its acceptance of the request. The Ombudsman asked it to rule if the calculation formula in Section 128 of the organic law on the election of MPs contradicts the method in Section 91 of the constitution.
The court said the case did not need to go to trial because it concerned legal content. However, the court required documents relating to the Constitution Drafting Assembly's consideration of Section 91 of the constitution, the consideration of list-MP calculation methods, and from the National Legislative Assembly committee.
The court would receive the documents by next Tuesday and would convene at 9.30am on Wednesday to consider the issue and make a ruling.
Meanwhile, EC deputy secretary-general Nat Laosisawakul said his office would announce the names of elected constituency MPs next Tuesday. On Wednesday the office would propose the list MP calculation formula under the MP election law to the EC for consideration.
He said the EC would decide if it should wait for the ruling of the Constitutional Court.
On the issue of party-list allocation, the Ombudsman was of the opinion the formula outlined in the MP Election Act added criteria and was different from what is stipulated in the constitution.
The constitution provided the calculation method for the "quota" of party-list MPs, while the MP law added the phrase "initial quota".
The issue of which formula should be used in calculating the number of list MPs for each party is crucial after unofficial results showed the anti-coup coalition had only a few seats more than the pro-military side.
One formula would give the anti-junta side the numbers to form a government, while the other would give the pro-regime side the leverage.
