Government whips will meet on Oct 24 to discuss a joint stand on a motion proposed by the Move Forward Party (MFP) regarding a public referendum on charter amendments to be deliberated by the House of Representatives on Oct 25-26, government whip chief Adisorn Piengkes said on Sunday.
Mr Adisorn, a Pheu Thai list MP, said the MFP's motion had been put on the House agenda and would be deliberated in line with the procedures stipulated in the public referendum law.
Whips from parties in the government bloc would meet on Oct 24 at 9am to talk over a joint stand on the motion. A decision whether to support it would be made after the MFP has explained it, he said.
If the motion is passed by the House of Representatives, it would be forwarded to the Senate for endorsement before being sent to the cabinet. If the motion is rejected by the Senate, it would be dropped, Mr Adisorn said.
Parit Wacharasindhu, the Move Forward MP and spokesman, said on Saturday that under the motion, the people would be asked in a referendum whether they agree that a completely new constitution should be written to replace the military-drafted 2017 constitution, and the new charter should be written by a constitution drafting assembly whose members are directly elected by them.
Although the government side has set up a committee to work on its own proposal on a public referendum, he believed exchanges of opinions in the House of Representatives would be useful for it to make a decision, Mr Parit said.