Parliament on Wednesday (15 October) passed the first readings of two bills proposing amendments to the Constitution to set up a Constituent Assembly, kickstarting the process of drafting a new Constitution. A third bill failed.

Three bills were proposed by the Pheu Thai, Bhumjaithai, and People’s Parties and were deliberated in a joint sitting of the House of Representatives and the Senate on Tuesday and Wednesday (14–15 October). Each bill needs a majority in the House and at least a third of the Senate to pass.

The bills of Bhumjaithai and the People’s Party were passed but the Pheu Thai bill was dismissed after failing to gain enough votes from the Senate.

The People’s Party bill proposes a 35-person drafting committee whose members will be selected by Parliament from a list of 70 candidates elected in a list system.

It also proposes a 100-person Drafting Consultation Assembly. Members of the Assembly will be elected on a provincial basis. Each province must have at least 1 representative on the Assembly.

The Bhumjaithai Party, now leader of the government coalition, proposes a 99-person Constituent Assembly, of whom 77 will be provincial representatives selected by Parliament from a list of applicants with the remaining 22 experts appointed by Parliament.

Parliament now has to choose which bill will be considered the main version at the committee level. After its bill was dismissed, Pheu Thai announced on social media that it will vote for the People’s Party version to be used as the main version to ensure public participation in the amendment process.

There were initially 290 votes for the Bhumjaithai version and 290 for the People’s Party, with 15 abstentions. Some MPs and senators arrived late to the chamber and asked to cast their votes, raising the vote for Bhumjaithai to 295. However, since the two bills were originally tied, some People’s Party and Pheu Thai MPs called for a re-vote by roll call.

The People’s Party bill won 300 votes in the second round, while Bhumjaithai won 287. The bills will now be forwarded to an ad-hoc committee, which will return a combined version to parliament for the second and third reading. The bill will then have to be approved by a referendum to pass.

People’s Party MP Parit Wacharasindhu, who proposed his Party’s version, posted on social media after the session that passing the bills in their first reading was an important first step in opening the door to a new constitution and thanked the MPs and senators who backed the People’s Party bill. He wrote, however, that he was disappointed that parliament dismissed the Pheu Thai bill. Noting that the three bills were very similar, he wrote that it was difficult to understand why the results turned out the way they were. This was not a good start, he wrote, as collaboration and consensus would be very useful to the amendment process.