The bill amending the Referendum Act has been put on hold for 180 days after the House of Representatives voted to reject the version amended by the joint committee of the Senate and the House, which required a double majority for a referendum to pass, while the Senate approved it.

The Senate and the House have been continuously pushing back on forth on whether to retain the double majority requirement in the Referendum Act. In August, the House passed a bill amending the Referendum Act so that a double majority is no longer required, but the Senate voted on 30 September to amend the bill re-instating the requirement. In spite of a push by Bhumjaithai MPs to support the Senate’s position, the House responded on 9 October by voting 345 to 0, with 65 abstentions, to reject the Senate’s changes.

A joint committee was then formed to propose a new version of the bill. It voted 13 to 9 on 20 November in favour of requiring a double majority.

The bill was returned to the House and the Senate for another reading. On Tuesday (17 December), the Senate voted 153 to 24 to approve the bill. On Wednesday (18 December), the House voted 326 to 61 to reject the bill. Since the bill was not approved by both houses, it will be put on hold for 180 days, after which the House may hold another vote to pass the original draft.

59 of Bhumjaithai’s MPs voted in favour of the bill, along with two Thai Sang Thai MPs. Bhumjaithai Secretary-General and MP Chaichanok Chidchob said ahead of the vote that the party is standing by its opinion that a double majority should be required to make a referendum legitimate.

Chaichanok is the son of Newin Chidchob, the founder of the Bhumjaithai Party, and is the nephew of Minister of Education Pol Gen Permpoon Chidchob and former Minister of Transport Saksayam Chidchob. It is widely believed that a majority of the supposedly non-partisan Senators are allied to Bhumjaithai.