Thai court conditionally approves constitutional amendment bids

Hanoi (VNA) – Thailand's Constitutional Court on March 11 endorsed constitutional amendment bids launched by Members of Parliament on condition that public referendums be held twice.

The court delivered the judgment that the legislators in both the House of Representatives and Senate have the authority and duty to amend the constitution.

However, the court called for a nationwide referendum to see if most people will endorse the constitutional amendment in the first place and then to see if most people will finally approve an amended charter.

Given the first public referendum in favour of the amendment, a Constitution Drafting Committee will be set up for the initial tasks of amending the charter.

Then, the second public referendum will be conducted to either endorse or reject the amended charter.

The Palang Pracharath Party-led coalition government and Pheu Thai Party-led opposition bloc have separately put forward motions to amend the 2017 constitution to the extent that the charter be "more democratic and less complicated."

Extraordinary parliamentary sessions will begin on March 17 to deliberate constitutional amendment issue./.