Move Forward says it will push a referendum to scrap the 2017 constitution and set up an elected constitutional drafting body to write a new one.
The announcement came after only one of 13 bills was passed in their first reading in parliament this week.
The bill, proposed by the Democrat and coalition parties, except Palang Pracharath (PPRP), made it to the second reading only because enough senators — 210 against the required 84 — voted in its favour. Eleven other bills also won a majority vote of both houses but did not get the same support.
The bill aims to change the election system to use two ballots — one for constituency MP and the other for party. The current system is based loosely on the mixed member proportional system used in Germany but automatically counts a constituency MP vote as his party’s vote and uses a confusing formula to calculate seats for list MPs.
The remaining 12 bills on various issues were voted down.
“It’s a pity that both bills by the opposition and three coalition parties aimed at banning senators from voting on a prime minister won as many as 441 and 440 votes, or more than half of parliament. They deserved to be deliberated but were scrapped because they did not get the support of a third of senators,” the party wrote on Facebook.
The vote results laid bare who are obstructing the solution of the constitutional crisis, read the post.
“We will continue to switch off senators in the next meeting session in November. If we can’t do that, it doesn’t matter which electoral system we use — none will trump these 250 unelected votes and senators will have a final say on who gets to be a prime minister.”
The referendum law was passed on Tuesday. It is now in the process of being submitted for royal endorsement within 90 days, or by September.
Once it comes into effect, Move Forward will immediately file a motion to seek a vote for the referendum.
“By then, PPRP and senators will have no reason to reject it since they earlier cited people to prevent any changes made to the constitution.
In addition to Parliament, the new law allows at least 50,000 people to sign up to propose a referendum to the cabinet.
Thirteen charter amendment bills on various issues were put up to a vote by a joint sitting of MPs and senators on Wednesday. They were by Palang Pracharath (1), Pheu Thai (4), Bhumjai Thai (2) and the Democrat (6). (see below)
Parties chose to submit a separate bill for each of their agenda instead of bundling them into a single bill so they stand a better chance of being passed.
To succeed, a bill must meet two conditions. It must win at least half the votes of both houses (376) and at least a third of 250 senators, or 84, must be included in that number.
It turned out only one bill — submitted by the Democrat and coalition parties except Palang Pracharath, on the change of the electoral system to use two ballots like in 1997 — was passed because it was the only one that enough senators (210) voted for it.
Most of the other 12 bills, while getting more than half of the votes, failed to win the required 84 votes from senators and were therefore scrapped.
Notably, the two bills on switching off senators won the most votes from MPs (440 and 441).
The 13 bills were:
- Palang Pracharath on five issues, including two-ballot election system
- Pheu Thai on more fundamental rights
- Pheu Thai on two-ballot election system
- Pheu Thai on “switching off” senators
- Pheu Thai on abolishing the national strategy
- Bhumjaithai on revising the national strategy
- Bhumjaithai on universal basic income
- Democrat on more fundamental rights
- Democrat on constitution amendment rules
- Democrat on more corruption checks
- Democrat and colation parties except PPRP on “switching off” senators
- Democrat on decentralisation
- Democrat on two-ballot election system