The People’s Constitutional Drafting Group (ConForAll) has launched a campaign to gather over 50,000 signatures to propose a bill amending the Constitution and pushing for fully democratic direct elections for Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) members.

On 9 June, ConForAll representatives gathered at parliament to submit a petition to launch the campaign, signed by 63 members of civil society organizations.

Activist Patsaravalee “Mind” Tanakitvibulpon, representing ConForAll and the 63 petitioners, said that in proposing the bill, the network wants to insist that a direct election of CDA members is possible, and that they believe the 21 million people who voted for a new Constitution want a Constitution that is for the people and not one that serves those in power.

Patsaravalee also remarked that, in the 2026 policy statement presented by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to parliament, there was no mention of a constitutional amendment despite the results of the 2026 referendum. She noted that a few months later, the Bhumjaithai Party announced their own draft amendments to the 2017 constitution, but this draft rejected public participation in the amendment process by requiring CDA members to be appointed by parliament. With Bhumjaithai dominating both the lower house and the upper house, Patsaravalee questioned whether it is trying to speed up the process because it is sure it has enough power to control the direction of the amendments.

Bhumjaithai proposed that of the 100 CDA members, 77 be selected from each province with the remaining 23 chosen from among experts in related fields. It also proposed that for constitutional amendments to pass, they must be approved by a quarter of the Senate.

Patsaravalee said that under the Bhumjaithai government, the hope for a people-centred constitution is slowly dwindling, while the Constitutional Court ruling prohibiting a CDA election is a huge challenge. However, she argued, this ruling conflicted with previous rulings, which state the people hold the constituent power.  She questions whether the Constitutional Court ruling is being used to obstruct the process of drafting a new Constitution or to prevent public participation in the drafting process.

“If the Bhumjaithai bill becomes the only bill that is passed by parliament, or if the only bills approved are ones that do not allow a popular election, we want to insist that we will vote to reject it,” said Patsaravalee. 

Patsaravalee added that since parliament cannot be depended upon to amend the constitution, citizens must take action by proposing amendments to Section 256. Their proposal is that the CDA must be directly elected. She said that the Network’s proposal aligns with the 2017 Constitution, which gives the people sovereign constituent power. 

The bill has three main proposals: 

1. The members of the CDA must be directly elected. The CDA is made up of 300 members, 150 of whom are elected from each province and 150 by a party list system
2. The Constitution Drafting Committee must be appointed by the CDA. 25 members are chosen from among CDA members, and 10 members are experts in related fields. The CDA has the authority to appoint standing committees to supervise, inquire and request explanations from the Constitution Drafting Committee.
3. A draft constitution must be approved by three-fifths of CDA members. A referendum must then be held to ascertain whether the majority of the country approves the new constitution. This differs from the Bhumjaithai draft, which requires senate approval, in that the CDA holds the power. The Senate is bypassed entirely.

“We will use this space to fight the Constitutional Court’s ruling ourselves,” said Patsaravalee, “so if any political party of any affiliation or anyone at all even thinks about opposing the people or rejecting the people’s bill, it means you have declared yourselves an enemy of the people, like the Constitutional Court, and that you don’t want the new Constitution to belong to the people.”

Representatives from other organizations in the Network also spoke at the press conference, raising their concerns about the 2017 Constitution. They noted that the junta-backed Constitution lacks protection for civil rights and the rights of marginalised groups like LGBTQ+ people or people with disabilities. They argued that this is because the 2017 Constitution was drafted by the NCPO junta and so it is disconnected from the people.

The petition was received by Lertsak Pattanachaikul, Pheu Thai MP and second Deputy House Speaker. He said he would pass the petition to the House Speaker. After the petition has been vetted, the petitioners will have to collect at least 50,000 signatures and submit them to parliament. The bill will be formally introduced to parliament after the signatures have been verified.

He also said he is happy to see civil society showing an interest in constitutional amendments, noting that the amendment process should not be monopolised by specific groups and that he will gladly hand the bill over to parliament for review and start the amendment process.

Patsaravalee said in an interview after the petition was filed that the challenge of proposing amendments to the 2017 Constitution is that the Constitution was designed to make amendments difficult. It requires approval from a third of the Senate, while the Constitutional Court’s ruling meant that political parties are turned away from pushing for a CDA election.

When asked if she has any transparency concerns regarding the CDA election, Patsaravalee said that the elections must be closely monitored since the February 2026 general election has led to distrust against the Election Commission.

Chayapol Danotai of iLaw insists that a CDA election does not go against Constitutional Court ruling, because it was not an issue inquired about by the previous government. Only 3 Constitutional Court judges mentioned direct elections in their personal opinions, while the remaining 4 did not mention it.

Chayapol also explained that after petitioning parliament to start the campaign, they will need to collect at least 50,000 signatures to formally propose the bill.

Once the required number of signatures are vetted, the bill will be submitted to parliament where it will then undergo three readings. The network is calling for political parties to back its bill and vote for a CDA election. 

Another referendum will then be held to see whether the public approves the amendments. Chayapol said members of the network believe that no ruling can take precedence over the people’s judgement. Once the draft is approved by referendum, then the CDA election can be held, and the amendment process begins.

The campaign website was launched on 12 June. Thai voters can now sign up to back the bill at conforall.com.