The Constitutional Court on Wednesday rejected a petition by parliament seeking its ruling over whether the constitution can be amended before a referendum takes place and how many referendums should be held in the charter amendment process.
According to the court’s office, seven court judges on the bench voted unanimously to reject the petition. The petition also asked the court to rule on whether parliament can put a proposed charter amendment motion on its agenda for deliberation.
The judges argued that they had already ruled on the matter and that this issue had nothing to do with parliament’s scope of power. The parliament president already has the power to put the matter on parliament’s agenda in line with meeting regulations, the judges said.
The court ruled earlier that a charter rewrite could not proceed unless a referendum was held first. The court said amending critical areas of the charter or changing the charter in its entirety requires a prior, favourable referendum vote. However, the ruling did not spell out how many referendums are needed.
Speaking after the court’s ruling, Parit Wacharasindhu, a Move Forward Party (MFP) spokesman and list MP, called on parliament president, Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, to put on parliament’s agenda charter amendment bills proposed by the Pheu Thai and MFP parties.
Mr Parit also said the coup-appointed senators, who are coming to the end of their term, should not obstruct the charter amendment process. The MFP has voiced its support for Pheu Thai’s proposal to hold two referendums on the charter amendment and has insisted that members of a charter drafting assembly need to be elected. The proposal to revise the military-sponsored 2017 constitution, which was one of the ruling party’s election pledges, is a priority issue for the coalition government.
The referendum is a thorny issue thanks to a 2021 Constitutional Court ruling that the public must approve any move to amend the entire charter. If a rewrite is approved, another referendum must be held to approve the content. The government has set up a committee to draw up guidelines for holding a referendum to find common ground on how the 2017 constitution should be amended.