Thailand’s general election needs to be delay until 2018 to allow time to pass necessary laws, said a member of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) on January 2.
According to Somjet Booonthanom, the election would likely be postponed until March or April 2018 due to intricacies related to drafting election laws.
Meanwhile, Major General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, the spokesperson of the Prime Minister’s Office, said the election will be held later this year as set in its roadmap. He also stressed that the NLA’s opinions are their own.
According to regulations in a new Constitution approved in a referendum in last August, ten new acts have to be completed in eight months after the new Constitution is issued. Since these acts are accomplished, the new government is able to announce a general election in the next five months.
In last November, Prawit Wongsuwan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence, mentioned the possibility of delaying the general election if the event is harmful to the national interests.
Meanwhile, General Chlermchai Sittisart, Commander of the Thai Royal Army, said on January 2 in an interview with local media that military coups were the past.
There will be no coup, confirmed by the army chief, adding that the military has learned from what happened in the past.
The Thai military has carried out 12 successful coups in the last eight decades.
The latest coup was in 2014 when the then-army chief Prayut Chan-o-cha (now Prime Minister) toppled Yingluck Shinawatra’s administration only two days after declaring martial law.-VNA
