Army names its man for the Upper House

POLITICS / SENATE SELECTION, CORRUPTION INQUIRY, COALITION PLANS

Army names its man for the Upper House

PENCHAN CHAROENSUTHIPAN & SUPAWADEE INTHAWONG

The army has named its candidate for one of the 74 positions for appointed senators as the process of selecting members of the Upper House started yesterday. Defence Inspector-General Gen Lertrat Rattanawanich has been nominated as the army's candidate.

Under the constitution, there will be a total of 150 senators _ 74 appointed and an elected senator from each of the 76 provinces.

Lt-Gen M.L. Prasobchai Kasemsant, of the Office of the Defence Permanent Secretary, presented the army's nomination to the office of the Election Commission (EC) yesterday.

The selection of senate appointees will be handled by a panel, whose members include the president of the Supreme Court, the EC chairman, the ombudsman and the president of the National Counter Corruption Commission.

The nominations can be submitted to the panel through the EC every day, including public holidays, until Jan 17.

The EC is duty-bound to forward the list of nominees to the selection panel.

The selection process will take 30 days to complete.

The EC will then compile the list of chosen candidates and make it public.

The charter allows wide-ranging agencies and organisations run by the government, private sector, professional groups, academics and other sectors to nominate one representative each to be a candidate for an appointed senator.

EC secretary-general Suthiphon Thaveechaiyagarn said those organisations must be legal entities set up for no less than three years.

The agencies or organisations must not work for profit or be political groups.

Mr Suthiphon, who is also a secretary to the selection panel, added that a sub-committee was set up to check the backgrounds and qualifications of nominees and the organisations which nominate them.

As for the election of the 76 senators, the cabinet agreed to set March 2 as the date for the senate election.

However, observers noted that even though the date for the senate election has been fixed, preparations for the senate poll appear to have been greeted with muted enthusiasm.

They said this is because the focus of attention is now on the endorsement or disqualification of winning candidates in the Dec 23 general election, which could have a significant bearing on attempts to form a new government by the People Power party, which has won the most seats in the House of Representatives.

Campaigns for local elections of chiefs of provincial administration organisations were also overshadowed by national politicians jockeying for power in the wake of the general election, observers added.