BANGKOK, 13 Mar 2014 — The Constitutional Court has dismissed the People’s Democratic Reform Committee’s request that it rule on Yingluck Shinawatra administration’s status, while accepting the Election Commission (EC)’s petition for it to rule on the constitutionality of the election re-runs in 28 southern constituencies.
The Charter Court yesterday dismissed the petition filed by PDRC leader Taworn Senniem, saying the government did not breach Section 68 of the constitution, which required it to obtain enough members of parliament for the opening of Parliament within 30 days after the general election.
However, the court did accept EC’s request that it rule whether or not the EC has the authority to hold election re-runs in 28 constituencies in the South where there were no candidates. The court deemed that it was a case of conflict between the administration and the EC, as stated by Section 214 of the constitution.
The court also decided to accept to rule on the constitutionality of the February 2nd national polling, which was filed by the Office of the Ombudsman claiming that the general election was not held in one day nationwide as stipulated in the constitution. The Charter Court thus ordered Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and the EC’s president to testify on March 19th.
