Pichian's suggestions

National Legislative Assembly member Pichian Amnartworaprasert has proposed 18 changes to the constitution draft.
His proposals include: lSenators to come from elections and the number remains the same as stipulated in the 1997 constitution, which is 200; lAdd a clause in Article 2 that Thailand has Buddhism as the state religion; lRemove paragraph 2 of Article 68 over the establishment of a panel to tackle national crises; lRemove Article 299 relating to political amnesty; lMaintain the number of MPs at 500 and not reduced it to 400; lChange the election system from multiple MP constituencies to single MP constituencies, as in the 1997 constitution, and maintain the number of party-list MPs at 100 but reduce the cut-off proportion from 5 per cent to 1 per cent. Votes should be tallied at polling stations. lMPs should be allowed to run independently and not have to run under a party banner; lRemove the clause that allows courts and independent agencies to propose legislation and reduce the number of eligible voters who can propose legislation from 20,000 to 10,000; lAdd a clause to Article 186 that before ratifying any agreements with foreign countries, public hearings must be carried out and approval sought from the House; lRemove Article 246 that stipulates that public prosecutors work under an independent agency; lRemove a clause in Article 216 that stipulates that senators can launch impeachment proceedings against judges, prosecutors and other high ranking officials; lReduce the number of people required for petitions to launch a constitutional amendment, from 100,000 to 50,000.
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