Nikorn Chamnong Proposes Compromise in Referendum Bill Deliberations.

Bangkok: "Nikorn" expects the joint committee to conclude the referendum bill this Wednesday, proposing a solution for the two houses to meet halfway, making a half-level, preventing accusations of legitimacy, indicating that if it does not pass, the parliamentary mechanism can be used to ask new questions, not closing the door on amending the constitution, confirming that "Saewang" will join the discussion with the committee on voting via post. Mr. Nikorn Chamnong, as a member of the joint committee to consider the draft of the referendum bill, revealed that the agenda of the committee meeting on November 20th is to listen to the issue of the new referendum system using postal mail, which has been responded to by Mr. Rattapol Phakdeepum, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Thailand Post Company Limited and his team, along with the Election Commission (EC), with Mr. Saweng Boonmee, Secretary-General of the EC, also providing clarification on the issue. According to Thai News Agency, Mr. Nikorn continued th at the draft of the Referendum Act will be considered by asking for opinions from the committee members who have not yet given their opinions individually, with only a few remaining, and it will reach the decision-making stage of the committee, which is believed that there will be a vote on whether to uphold the draft that the Senate has changed to a two-tier referendum, or amend it back to a single-tier form as the original draft of the MPs, or there will be other amendments besides this. However, it is believed that the consideration should reach a final conclusion on November 20. After that, it will take time to prepare a report for consideration and approval by both houses, which can definitely be completed in time for the opening of the parliament in mid-December. Mr. Nikorn said that he wanted to compromise, so he would propose another option to the committee, which is to hold a half-level referendum, reducing the two-tier senators and increasing the one-tier MPs, to meet in the middle as a solution, s o that there would be no conflicts, to the point where both houses would have to break with their opinions, which were reasonable but had different perspectives. Mr. Nikorn said that the reason he proposed increasing the number to half is because he saw the possibility of it happening, since the voting system has been improved to make it easier for the public to access it. Therefore, he believes that more than half of the people will come out to exercise their rights. Mr. Nikorn said that if there is no minimum criteria for voting, and the number of votes used to decide the election is irrelevant, it could be argued that it is not legitimate. Therefore, he proposed to maintain the upper level, which requires more than half of all eligible voters to vote, but to remove the lower level, which requires more than half of all eligible voters to vote in favor, leaving only half the level. This principle is a draft that the Constitution Amendment Study Committee had submitted to the Cabinet in April. Mr. Nikorn a dded that even if in the end there is a problem that it does not pass for any special reason, it can be repeated to amend the constitution again in the future. It does not mean that the constitution cannot be amended again by using the mechanism of the parliament to ask a new referendum question. Importantly, this new referendum voting system is believed to be able to significantly reduce the country's expenses.