Thai Senate votes against amnesty bill

BANGKOK, November 12 (TNA) - The Thai Senate voted against the controversial amnesty bill on Monday night after a nearly10-hour debate. The Upper House rejected the first reading of the controversial amnesty bill with the unanimous vote of 141:0. Based on the Thai Constitution, the draft amnesty bill, which was approved by the House of Representatives on November 1, 2013, is to be sent back to the Lower House and MPs are to wait 180 days before they can reconsider it again or take other action. The government then proposed for a joint parliamentary sitting of the Upper and Lower Houses on November 13 to seek other solutions to the draft amnesty bill after the Senate rejected it. Meanwhile, nine members of the Parliament (MPs) of Thailand's main opposition Democrat Party, including the party's secretary-general and a former Thai deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban resigned from the House to lead an ongoing mass rally against the controversial amnesty bill. Suthep also told the protesters and the general public to engage in four forms of national civil disobedience, covering a call on employees and students to participate in a three-day national strike, starting from November 13, 2013, owners of companies and shops to withhold their payment of mid-year taxes, a display of the national flag outside people's or offices and a hanging of whistles around their necks to blow them whenever they meet Thai Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra or her cabinet members. (TNA)