The five incumbent election commissioners must quit their posts in 15 days starting from today (Thursday) when the National Legislative Assembly voted to endorse five candidates nominated by the selection committee, NLA president Pornpetch Wichitcholachai said today.
In the next step, he said the Office of the Secretary-General of the Senate would arrange for five new election commissioners to meet after July 26 to choose the chairman.
After that, a list of the five commissioners would be forwarded to His Majesty the King for Royal approval, said Mr. Pornpetch, adding that the five could start functioning immediately without the need to wait for the nomination of the two others by the selection committee.
However, he warned that if any of the five was found to be unqualified afterward, the rest of the commissioners could not choose the chairman and could not function because they lack the quorum.
The five candidates approved by the NLA today were Santhad Siriananpaiboon, Itthiporn Boonprakong, Tawatchai Therdpaothai, Chatchai Chanpraisri and Pakorn Mahannop.
After the NLA rejected the two candidates nominated by the selection committee, the NLA president said he would ask the president of the Supreme Court, in his capacity as the chair of the selection committee, to renew the selection process to nominate two candidates in 90 days.
He said he wasn’t sure whether the Supreme Court president would do away with the selection process and, instead, choose to invite qualified candidates for the NLA’s approval.
