An elected prime minister but an appointed Senate, MPs reduced to 400, progressive ideas on inheritance tax and real estate tax ditched - those were the key decisions of the Constitution Drafting Committee on a day of mixed results after secret voting was speedily concluded yesterday.

Only seven drafters voted for leaving room for a possible non-elected prime minister, while 25 cast a vote against it and three abstained, including Prasong Soonsiri, chairman of the CDC.

The outcome reflects the results from opinions gathered by various bodies over the months.

The key political issue, for which the vote went against perceived popular sentiment, was the decision to have an appointed upper house instead of an elected one.

Twenty eight out of 35 drafters voted for an appointed Senate, while only three opposed it.

Some drafters tried to convince the meeting to at least allow for people to indirectly vote for provincial-quota senators from a short list submitted by a selection committee, which constitutes 76 out of the reduced total of 160, or one each from all the 76 provinces, but it was defeated in the second round of voting: 16 to five with the rest abstaining.

Critics say that an appointed Senate can never claim to have the people's mandate.

The Senate will no longer have the power to launch an impeachment motion against the prime minister or select members of the so-called independent organisations.

"I don't know how transparent an appointed Senate will be," drafter Angkhana Neelapaijit told The Nation.

Another drafter, Choochai Supawongse, said he voted for an elected Senate but to no avail. "It's the only major divisive issue that doesn't reflect results from the public hearings. Most drafters think the past Senate didn't carry out their duty."

A selection committee of five people - three from the courts plus the House speaker and opposition leader - will select future senators, 76 of those representing each province and 84 others representing various and yet to be decided professions.

Another major controversial issue adopted through the secret voting yesterday was for the creation of a special crisis committee to resolve political deadlock.

The committee will be made up of 11 people including prime ministers, heads of various courts, the opposition leader and chairman of the so-called independent organisations.

Equally important is the decision to reduce the number of MPs to 400, with 80 of them coming from a new party-list system that will be divided into regions instead of a single national party-list system.

The committee voted against establishing a controversial caretaker committee to run the country after the House is dissolved in order to avoid abuse of power leading to an election.

Children of politicians will be barred from acting as proxies of their politician parents and in owning or running their parents' businesses.

If there are shares, they must be transferred to a third person.

"Do they think there won't be a loophole" asked caretaker Chart Thai Party leader Sonthaya Kunpluem, who happened to be at the resort hotel where the meeting is taking place due to the fact that Sonthaya and his family own the business.

Twelve basic years of education were maintained as in the 1997 Constitution, but the much-lauded attempt to introduce inheritance and real estate tax was voted out. The vote against inheritance tax was close, at 16 against 12 for the move.

Twenty drafters opposed the introduction of real estate tax while eight supported it. One drafter said it would be years before these issues gained momentum again.

The meeting postponed a vote on whether to keep all basic public utilities as state enterprises and renationalise some already privatised utilities.

The committee also voted against putting into the charter an article that would require the state to announce how it would help people who are affected by bilateral or multilateral treaties such as the Foreign Trade Agreement.

Eleven drafters voted against it while eight supported the move and the rest abstained.

Twenty drafters voted to reduce the number of commissioners of the National Human Rights Commission from 11 to seven, while a minority eight drafters tried in vain to vote for the retention of the existing number of commissioners, because they consider there's a lot of work for the commission to do and that the international community will interpret the move negatively.

The first draft is expected to be out by April 19 or a day earlier. The Constitution Drafting Assembly will have to approve it.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation

Bang Saen, Chon Buri