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Published on April 1, 2008

The move comes amidst growing discontent that the amendments are aimed at protecting certain coalition partners, including the People Power Party, from legal cases that could eventually lead to their parties' dissolution.

PM's Office Minister Choosak Sirinin, who heads the government's charter amendment drafting committee, said it was agreed at yesterday's meeting of coalition representatives that the changes would focus on articles 190, 266, 237, 309 and the clauses involving the public's right to introduce new laws.

He said the coalition parties would be officially informed today about the meeting's resolution. If they all agreed, a joint amendment draft would be prepared accordingly so that a motion could be filed in the House by next week.

Choosak could not predict when the amendment process would be completed.

Under the constitution, a group of people numbering at least 10,000 can petition for the introduction of new laws that cover rights and liberties as well as fundamental state policies.

However, the coalition parties agreed yesterday that voters' rights to introduce new laws should be expanded to cover areas other than rights and liberties and fundamental state policies, according to Choosak.

Over the past week, coalition figures, especially from the PPP, have floated the idea of amending articles 237 and 309.

The former involves the dissolution of a political party if any of its executives is found to be aware of electoral fraud committed by a party candidate, while the latter recognises as constitutional the acts deemed lawful under the interim constitution of 2006, which was put in place after the coup that year.

Choosak yesterday said the coalition parties would seek to remove Article 309 to allow people affected by certain organisations set up by the coup-makers - such as the Assets Examination Committee - to sue the panel's members if their acts were viewed as unfair.

Those affected by this legal immunity would include the 111 banned former executives of the disbanded Thai Rak Thai Party, the minister said. As for Article 237, it would be amended to spare a political party from dissolution due to electoral fraud committed by any of its candidates, according to Choosak.

He said the guilty candidate, or even the party's leader and other executives, should be punished if they are found to have abetted such an electoral violation, but not the party as a whole.

Piyanart Srivalo

The Nation