Most Thais back charter change panel's proposals: poll

A high percentage of respondents supported the recommendations on charter amendment proposed by the Constitutional Amendment Committee, a national poll revealed Friday.

The poll, conducted by the Bangkok University research centre, from Aug 28 to 31, involved 1,249 people from Bangkok and other 20 provinces across the country.

According to the poll, 85.2 percent of the respondents agreed that the political party winning the most seats of House of Representatives should be eligible to form the government first.

And 73 percent of them supported the recommendation to change Article 237 of the 2007 Constitution regarding party dissolution. The proposal is that there will be no party dissolution, but only banning those party executives who admitted the fraud from politics if the party is found guilty of an electoral fraud.

At least three parties, including former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinnawatra's Thai Rak Thai and Thaksin-linked People's Power Party, were dissolved the Constitution Court order under the current charter.

Nearly 70 percent of the respondents backed the change from the current multiple-MP constituency system to a single-MP per constituency system.

Moreover, 74.6 percent wanted Abhisit to hold a national referendum after receiving the recommendations from the constitution change panel, and 34.5 percent wanted a referendum be held in three months.

Headed by National Institute of Development Administration ( NIDA) rector Sombat Thamrongthanyawong, the Constitutional Amendment committee was set up in May by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who was pressured by House members to amend the charter.

Constitution amendment is among the measures conducted by the prime minister to achieve national reconciliation after the anti- government movement red-shirts staged a chronic protest in mid March in Bangkok, and the subsequent conflicts between them and the security forces killed 91 and injured 1,900.

The 2007 Constitution was drafted by a committee established by the military junta, which toppled the then Prime Minister Thaksin and abrogated the 1997 Constitution on September 19, 2006.

The 1997 Constitution, the first constitution to be drafted by elected Constitutional Drafting Assembly, was widely hailed as a landmark in Thai democratic constitutional reform. For the first time in Thai history, both houses were directly elected. Many independent entities were established to increase the check and balance elected governments.

Source: Xinhua