Issues concerning the primary voting system will be addressed after the organic law on the election of MPs takes effect, Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) chairman Meechai Ruchupan said Tuesday.
He said the problems will have to wait until the bill governing the general election takes effect, but the political parties concerned can use this waiting period to figure out how to solve them.
Political parties have long complained there is too little time left before the next election, tentatively scheduled for February next year, for them to organise primaries, in which registered members will select potential MP candidates for their respective parties.
There have been informal discussions about cancelling or scaling back the primary voting system in a bid to give political parties more time before the poll and alleviate political tension.
Reacting to the frustration of political parties, Mr Meechai said the Election Commission (EC) should host a meeting to list the problems the primaries pose.
He said a meeting hosted by the government on June 25 did not lead to any conclusions or resolutions because it was only meant for parties to air their problems and give suggestions.
However, Mr Meechai disagreed with a proposal that primaries be organised at regional and not constituency level, saying it would not reflect their purpose.
"The EC should host a meeting and find out the problems facing political parties over the vote and determine what it can do. Problems that can't be solved by the EC should be forwarded to the government," he said.
On the scheduled National Legislative Assembly (NLA) vote to select seven new EC members tomorrow, he said the CDC will suggest that potential candidates be approached for the job if this batch of candidates are voted down like the last set of nominees.
Of the seven candidates, two have been picked by an assembly of Supreme Court judges and the five others by a selection panel led by the Supreme Court.
In February, the NLA rejected seven nominated candidates, forcing a new round of selection.
