The House coordinating committee has agreed to set April 3rd and 4th as the dates for the opposition’s general debate against the government, while the second reading of the 2024 budget bill will be held on March 20th and 21st, with the third reading on March 25th.
The committee also agreed to allocate time during the general debate as 22 hours for opposition MPs, six hours for government MPs and two hours for the chair of the House meeting.
The time spent on protests during the debate will be deducted from the time of the opposition or government camps, depending on the affiliation of the protesting MPs.
The first day of the debate will end at 1am of the following day and second day’s debate will end at 11pm.
Asked if the name of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be mentioned during the debate, House Speaker Wan Mohamad Noor Matha said that there are rules governing references to outsiders, adding that, if a third person is referred to unnecessarily, the chair of the meeting will not give the permission, unless that third person is related to the motion being debated.
