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The Progressive Movement on Monday summited an 80,000-strong petition to parliament which seeks to amend the constitution to allow every province to vote for their own governor.
“The central government’s control over all resources, budget and power must end and local administrations should be allowed to manage these things by themselves,” said Pannika Wanich, the executive director of the Progressive Movement.
“Our proposal is to the prevent central government from coming up with laws that go against the way of life of local people in each province or laws that do not answer the need of local people in each province, it is the liberation of each province’s potential” she said.
Pannika said the group gathered 80,772 signatures from 77 provinces for the petition within three months.
At least 50,000 signatures are needed for any draft amendment to be deliberate in parliament. The draft was received by Phongsri Tarapoom, a member of the House Speaker’s working team.
Parit Wacharasindhu, the manager of policy at Move Forward Party (MFP), said the draft amendment seeks to amend Chapter 14 to provide local administrations with more power in managing local affairs such as budget allocation and revenue collection, public services, and utilities.
It seeks to provide clarity on jurisdiction to avoid overlap between works of national government agencies and works of local administrations.
It also seeks to allow citizens in each province to vote for their leader, similar to the gubernatorial elections in Bangkok and Pattaya.
Parit urged conservative parliamentarians to overlook the fact that the petition is being pushed by the Progressive Movement and the MFP and to see it as a petition which came from the people, similar to the Marriage Equality Bill which passed its first reading last month.