The Move Forward Party (MFP) has slammed the process behind the upcoming Senate election for paying lip service to professional representation and being prone to manipulation.
The concerns were conveyed by Parit Wacharasindhu, an MFP list MP and party spokesman, and Yingcheep Atchanond, manager of the Internet Law Reform Dialogue (iLaw), at a seminar recently.
Mr Parit expressed doubts the election will find representatives across 20 professional groups to fill 200 seats.
The election, the result of which is expected to be known in July, will be held at district, provincial and national levels. Candidate registration will take place after the incumbent senators' term expires in early May.
Three successful applicants will make the cut in each professional group in each district, or 60 from 20 groups in a district. When multiplied by 928 districts nationwide, there will be 55,680 district-level applicants who will enter the provincial race.
A provincial, intra-professional group election will follow, shortlisting the applicants to two per group, or 40 across 20 groups in each province, or 3,080 applicants across 78 provinces nationwide.
At the national level, the 3,080 applicants will go into an inter-group election. Ten applicants with the highest number of votes in each group, or 200 across 20 groups, will become senators.
Mr Parit told the "Sol Bar Talk" seminar that the election does not enable the new senators to function with democratic legitimacy.
"The system does not allow for senators to be directly elected by the people but via the election of professional representatives. Yet the senators from this half-baked system are given a high degree of power, such as vetoing a charter amendment and endorsing Constitutional Court judges," he said.
Mr Parit also noted the Senate poll begins at the district level, which compels candidates to consolidate local support.
Candidates who are respected in their fields may not possess enough of a support base, prompting them to seek the help of local politicians to win.
He added that at the national level, cross-voting means candidates belonging to one professional group might not know enough about the qualifications and credentials of fellow candidates from other groups they are voting for.
Mr Parit said he feared that inorganic block voting would be involved, where candidates would resort to all means possible to set up networks of supporters within their professional groups and in other groups.
He said the election is complex and many practical aspects are unclear. For example, the Election Commission has not specified what criteria it will use to verify that the candidates have experience in their respective professions spanning at least 10 years.
Meanwhile, Mr Yingcheep said the lingering question was whether the Senate poll would carry on the current coup-appointed Senate.
He also found puzzling claims that the election will produce senators who represent local voices since the candidates in the districts will eventually be put to cross-group voting to decide who will win seats at the national level.