Thai Sang Thai party leader Sudarat Keyuraphan challenged the prime minister yesterday to clear the air over a widespread rumour that the Pheu Thai party wants to amend the Constitution, to do away with the 100 party-list seats in the House, in an effort to prevent the opposition Move Forward party from winning the next general election.
In her Facebook post today, Sudarat admitted that she has no idea whether there is any basis to such a rumour, but said that the prime minister must openly declare whether the Pheu Thai party has any plan to do away with or reduce the number of party-list MPs.
She explained that the exclusion of party-list MPs from the Lower House will prevent knowledgeable and competent people, who would otherwise be defeated in constituency elections by career politicians, from entering parliament.
She pointed out that, prior to the election last year, the Pheu Thai party supported constitutional amendments to reduce party-list seats from 150 to 100, to increase constituency seats from 350 to 400 and to advocate two-ballot elections.
She noted that the ruling party made several campaign promises, such as never joining hands with junta-affiliated parties and reducing electricity and fuel prices, but none of them were kept.
Even the promise that the government would not borrow to fund the “digital wallet” scheme was broken, said the Thai Sang Thai party leader.
Responding to Sudarat’s challenge, Pheu Thai party-list MP Anusorn Iamsa-ard accused her of spreading a fake news, as he denied that they have ever had an intention to do away with party-list MPs.
