Thailand's ministers ought to be elected following reform

BANGKOK, December 7 (TNA) - Sombat Thamrongthanyawong, chairman of National Reform Council’s (NRC) committee in charge of political reform, says as Thailand’s new charter is being written, its drafting committee members have debated and come to conclusion that cabinet ministers should be elected directly because it would be easier to investigate while it is also difficult to buy votes like the past administrations. Realising that previous charters still contain many loopholes and cruxes, Sombat said the drafting charter committee unanimously agreed after several rounds of debate that cabinet ministers should in future be directly elected. He said in the past, members of the House of Representatives come from election while a prime minister is appointed by them, causing vote buying and once appointed the prime minister will have to repay them. A proposal is now made in such a way that the administrative branch must be totally separated from the legislative branch, he said, adding that the constitution drafting committee will have to take this issue into consideration. And after the administrative branch is strengthened, its members could be impeached and stripped off from power by the legislators. Under this procedure, close scrutiny would be seen. He said senators should be elected both directly and indirectly from various occupations and those from election should also be empowered to impeach powerful politicians. The state-run National Statistical Office will later conduct a public survey on the need of the people. Reform in politics as well as in other areas are being undertaken following the May 22 bloodless coup in Thailand. (TNA)