The pro-democracy Progressive Movement is launching a sign-up campaign in April aimed at reforming a power decentralisation law it calls "backwards".
Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, secretary-general of the Progressive Movement, said the campaign will be underway from April 1–June 30.
If more than 100,000 people show support for decentralisation by signing up, a motion will be raised in parliament to allow Mr Piyabutr and movement founder Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit to explain the issue in front of lawmakers in the chamber, possibly in November.
Mr Piyabutr said the current power decentralisation law was based on a concept laid out by the coup-maker National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).
Piyabutr: Locals await 'liberation'
Under the law, the power to manage local affairs rests in the hands of provincial governors, he said. This makes leaders elected in local administrative organisation (LAO) polls meaningless, Mr Piyabutr said.
The movement aims to achieve a bona fide decentralisation of powers, where LAOs can have genuine authority to determine how their budgets are spent and how local projects are developed. It is looking to ultimately abolish the central-power structure operated by the bureaucracy, he said.
"There would no longer be provincial governors, district chiefs and other officials in the provinces representing state agencies," Mr Piyabutr said.
Mr Piyabutr said the power structure he has in mind is similar to that implemented in Japan and the United Kingdom.
Chapter 14 of the constitution, governing power decentralisation, must be amended, Mr Piyabutr said. He said the movement wants to revive Chapter 9 on power decentralisation stipulated in the now-abrogated 1997 charter.
Chapter 9 enabled the effective administration of local organisations and the movement intends to adopt it as its core message in seeking the amendment of Chapter 14 of the current charter, he said.
The movement would work to dismantle the government's roles in running local affairs in 10–15 years, he added. If the movement succeeded in pushing for reform, the pent-up capacities of LAOs will be released, Mr Piyabutr said.
There are more than 7,000 LAOs nationwide waiting to be "liberated", Mr Piyabutr said, adding the movement offers a proposed guideline to challenge the status quo under the NCPO-initiated power structure which is "backwards".
"The issue should not run into objection from the Senate, independent agencies or the higher institution because they have nothing to do with it," he said.