Pheu Thai has plan for new charter

Chusak Sirinil, head of Pheu Thai's legal team, speaks at a press conference on March 26 in Bangkok. (Bangkok Post file photo)

The Pheu Thai Party has floated a plan to establish a body to represent the people and academics to rewrite a constitution it says is the product of a coup.

Chusak Sirinil, head of Pheu Thai's legal team, said on Monday the rewriting panel, which would include people's representatives, would adopt a more legitimate and fairer process to amending the constitution.

The party would not dictate what contents in the charter would be rewritten. Rather it would ask the people to spell out the issues to be amended.

However, Mr Chusak did not say how his party planned to gather the people's input.

After corrections are decided, the rewriters will start working.

Once the panel completes the rewriting, the proposed amendments will be put up for public scrutiny. They should help solve problems seen with the present constitution, Mr Chusak said.

It is clear the constitution written by the Constitution Drafting Committee formed by the National Council for Peace and Order is flawed, he said.

The legal expert said the charter is riddled with elements that are unconstitutional. Mr Chusak cited the mixed-member proportional representation election method as an example and which has left many people confused.

The system involves a complex calculation of the party list votes to be translated into the number of MPs for political parties. Mr Chusak said it looks certain the election results will take more than a month to finalise.

That only adds to the complexity in forming a coalition government. Even if a government is up and running, the administration with a razor-thin majority would be unstable as it will consist of many parties including small ones.

Mr Chusak explained that to change the charter, a motion must be tabled before parliament. But before that, a referendum would be needed to determine whether the constitution should be redrafted and if so, how.