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Thursday May 22, 8:54 AMThai PM Tests the Water on Referendum for Charter RewriteBANGKOK, May 22 Asia Pulse - Even as his party's MPs petitioned parliament to initiate an amendment process to rewrite Thailand's infant Constitution without public participation, Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said Wednesday he would propose to the cabinet next week his plan to hold a national referendum on the charter rewrite with about a Bt2 billion (US$63 million) budget.The PM's remarks came after government MPs and senators presented parliament with their motion for a rewrite of the military-backed 2007 charter. Meanwhile, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a coalition of groups campaigning against charter amendment, announced that they would hold a press conference Thursday on their intended rally to oppose the constitutional amendments. Mr Samak said voters would not be asked their opinions regarding specific amendments, but to signal whether the constitution should continue "as is" or be revised within parliament, where it is likely that changes would follow party lines. The new constitution is not yet a year old, and the moves to change the charter is prompting rumours of a new military coup, but the prime minister's goal, he says, is to put a stop to the political turmoil that has the country split dearly down the middle. An academic observer said the referendum will give the Samak government the breathing space to deal with the accumulating tension in the political sphere. It remains to be seen how Mr Samak's party will respond to their leader's changing agenda. Nearly 160 MPs submitted their formal bid to amend Thailand's 2007 constitution, saying that their actions were in response to the people's desire for the 2007 charter to be changed to better serve the rule of democracy and to suit Thailand's continuing political development. (TNA-OANA) |
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