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The opposition parties are asking the Constitutional Court to seek more expert opinion besides that of the drafters of the 2017 charter when it comes to the interpretation of General Prayut Chan-o-cha’s 8-year premiership term.
“The opposition parties believe that asking for opinion from 2 experts will not be enough,” Cholnan Srikaew, the leader of the opposition told Thai Enquirer via phone interview.
“We will ask the House Speaker [Chuan Leekpai] to file the request for more experts and it will be up to the court whether they will consider this proposal or not,” he said.
The move came after the court said last week that they are seeking opinions from the former chairman of the junta-appointed Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) Meechai Ruchuphan and former CDC secretary Pakorn Nilprapunt on the interpretation of Prayut’s 8-year term.
The court suspended Prayut’s PM duty on August 24, pending their verdict on his term limit. The 2017 constitution stipulates that any Prime Minister should not stay in the position for more than 8-years.
Opposition parties filed a petition to ask the court to rule on the term limit because they believe that his term limit already ended since August 24.
They said his premiership term should be counted from August 2014 which was 3 months after the coup that he led before he was royally endorsed as premier under the previous interim charter.
However, his supporters say it should either be counted from April 2017 when the current charter came into effect, or from June 2019 when he was royally endorsed as a civilian premier under the current junta-drafted charter.
The opposition said besides asking for opinions from Meechai and Pakorn, the court should also ask for opinions from other legal experts to provide some balance as well.
There are reports that suggest that Meechai has already sent his representative to explain to the Constitutional Court what he meant with the 8-year clause.
Cholnan said Prayut now has less than 15 days to provide his statement to the court and the court will take another 2 weeks to listen to expert opinions.
Despite asking for the court to listen to more expert opinions, the leader of the opposition said they are still expecting the court to provide its verdict within September.
“Adding opinions from 2-3 more experts should not have much effect on the length of the verdict because the court is not considering anything right now while waiting for General Prayut to provide his statement,” Cholnan said.
“After the statement from General Prayut, they will ask to hear from experts, so adding more opinions from 2 to 4 sources should not extend the time period before the verdict that much because this is a part of the procedure,” he said.
Cholnan said since Meechai and Pakorn are providing their opinions via statements, the opposition parties on Wednesday filed the petition to provide more expert opinions on the issue to the court.
Along with the petition, the opposition also attached opinions from a group of 51 law lecturers from 15 universities who believe that Prayut’s already ended since August 24.
Records of interviews by Chulalongkorn University’s lecturer Ponson Liengboonlertchai and Thammasat University’s lecturer Somlak Chatkrabuanpon were also provided along with the petition.
Deputy Prime Minister in charge of legal affairs Wissanu Krea-ngam also said earlier that they do not expect the court to take a long time to provide its verdict on this issue because there is no witness examination in this case.
Cholnan said the opposition still believes that the fastest way to overcome this political void is for General Prayut to resign.
He said if Prayut resigns, the court will drop the case and parliament will be able to begin the selection process for a new premier. The new PM will then have a choice to stay on until this government term limit in March 2023 or dissolve the house to make way for a general election within this year.
“This will be the fastest way to give back the power to the people,” he said. “However, General Prayut already showed that he is not going to resign.”