The Election Commission has decided to ask the Constitutional Court to rule on whether non-Thai citizens can be included for the calculation of the number of MPs in each province.
The poll body made the decision in the face of heavy criticism from the public and political parties of the approach it has taken to redrawing constituency boundaries for the coming general election.
The EC has insisted that this was not the first time it had included non-Thais in its calculation. However, opposition MPs and academics argued that such a practice could lead to the election being declared null and void.
The EC has said there should be one MP for every 165,226 members of the public, based on an Interior Ministry census that showed a total population of 66,090,475 as of Dec 31 last year.
However, the figure compiled by the ministry included 983,994 non-Thais, both stateless people and others.
Move Forward MP Rangsiman Rome earlier called the EC’s approach “bizarre”. The Pheu Thai Party, meanwhile, has criticised the way the commission proposed to redraw constituency boundaries in Bangkok.
Activist lawyer Srisuwan Janya on Tuesday also filed a petition with the Office of the Ombudsman, requesting that it seek a charter court ruling on whether non-Thais can be included in the calculation of MPs.
He said ambiguity about the issue could lead to the poll results being declared invalid.
Mr Srisuwan’s petition was accepted by Piya Luedetkul, director for administration of the Office of the Ombudsman.
Since the EC has now decided to seek a court ruling, Mr Piya said the Office would consider whether it had the authority to do the same.
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said he totally agreed with the EC’s move to seek a ruling, saying that the Constitutional Court should make it clear once and for all how population statistics should be interpreted for election purposes.
Mr Wissanu, the government's legal expert, had earlier said that only Thai citizens should be used in the calculation and that non-Thais should be left out.
Asked what would happen if the wait for a court ruling ended up disrupting the election timeline, Mr Wissanu said the constitution allows for the date to be postponed in cases of force majeure.
Assuming the House of Representatives completes its full term, the election must be held no later than May 7.