The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) will send only the senators bill, and not the MP bill, to the Constitutional Court for a constitutionality review so the process won't delay the general election, says its whip.
The last two organic laws required before the countdown to a general election begins were passed on Thursday. The NLA is holding them in case some minority lawmakers want to challenge their constitutionality before the Constitutional Court.
Chief constitution writer Meechai Ruchupan said on Tuesday he would send a letter asking the NLA to send the two bills to the Constitutional Court to check their constitutionality.
In Mr Meechai’s views, the clauses on how senators are chosen might be unconstitutional.
Somchai Sawangkan, an NLA whip, said on Thursday the NLA had received Mr Meechai’s letter and several NLA members agreed with him.
“However, we will avoid derailing the roadmap or delaying the election. Since the Constitutional Court normally takes no more than three months to consider a case and the MP bill’s effective date is set 90 days after it is published in the Royal Gazette, we think the roadmap won’t be affected if we send only the senators law for a review,” he explained.
The NLA is considering the points to ask the court for a review and the decision should be known on Friday.
Mr Somchai said NLA members thought it was not worthwhile to send the MP bill for a review because the roadmap could be affected.
