Bangkok: The Democrat Party has appointed five Election Commission members to oversee the process of selecting the new executive committee leader, confident in its transparency and honesty, which is the hope of the people.
According to Thai News Agency, Thanitphon Chaianan, Director of the Democrat Party, revealed after the party’s executive committee appointed him to chair the extraordinary general meeting to select a new party leader and executive committee, to be held on October 18th, that the party’s secretariat will send a letter to members forming a quorum at least 15 days in advance of the meeting’s agenda. According to Article 78 of the party’s regulations, the quorum for a general meeting is 18 in number, including party executive committee members, members who have previously been party leaders or secretaries, members of the House of Representatives, former members of the House of Representatives, ministers of the party, former ministers, provincial administrative organization presidents, members of the provincial administrative organization council, and members of the local government, party branch leaders, and provincial party representatives. The total quorum for a general meeting must be at least 250.
Mr. Thanitphon stated that since the caretaker executive committee saw that some members were also MPs, according to the regulations, they were entitled to only one vote. They were required to indicate their intention to vote in their capacity and vote in that capacity throughout the meeting.
As for the process of nominating a candidate for party leader at the general meeting, according to Regulation 31, no less than half of those present must be endorsed. The election of the party executive committee will proceed in sequence, starting with the selection of the party leader, deputy party leader, party secretary, deputy party secretary, treasurer, registrar, party spokesperson, and other party executive committee members, all of which must be endorsed by at least 20 members present at the meeting.
Mr. Thanitphon added that for the general meeting’s vote according to Section 84, there are criteria for calculating the votes from the quorum in the election as a proportion, consisting of (1) the party’s executive committee, which shall be considered a proportion of 20 percent; (2) the party’s members of the House of Representatives, which shall be considered a proportion of 40 percent; (3) the election votes from the quorum outside of the two aforementioned criteria, shall be considered a proportion of 40 percent of the votes from the general meeting.
In addition, to ensure that the election of the new party leader and executive committee complies with the law and party regulations, the caretaker executive committee meeting on September 18th established a committee to oversee, adjudicate, and announce the election results (the Party Election Commission), chaired by Mr. Wirach Romyen, acting executive committee member, along with four other committee members.
“The Secretariat has made preparations to ensure the upcoming extraordinary general meeting runs as smoothly as possible. Every step we’ve taken has the ultimate goal of selecting a leader who truly commands the trust of the members and is ready to lead the Democrat Party to become the hope and refuge of the Thai people,” said Mr. Thanitpol.