Translation:Amendment to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand (No 1), 2564 Buddhist Era
Volume 138, Issue 76A
Royal Gazette
21 November 2564
Amendment to
the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand (No 1),
2564 Buddhist Era
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Paramenthara Ramathipbodi Sisinthra
Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Wachiraklao Chaoyuhua
Given on the 7th day of November 2564 BE
Being the 6th year of the present reign
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Paramenthara Ramathipbodi Sisinthra Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Wachiraklao Chaoyuhua commands that it be announced as follows:
Whereas it is appropriate to amend the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand;
Therefore, He assents to the enactment of the following Amendment to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand:
Section1.This Constitution is called the Amendment to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand (No 1), 2564 Buddhist Era.
Section2.This Constitution shall come into force from the day following the day of its publication in the Royal Gazette onwards.
Section3.The provisions of section 83 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand shall be repealed and replaced by the following provisions:
“Section83.The House of People’s Representatives is composed of Members numbering five hundred, of whom four hundred are Members elected on a constituency basis and one hundred are Members elected on a party-list basis.
Elections of Members of the House of People’s Representatives shall be conducted by means of direct and secret ballot, with different ballot papers used for each basis of Members of the House of People’s Representatives.
In the event that a position of Member of the House of People’s Representatives has become vacant for any reason and no Member of the House of People’s Representatives has yet been elected or announced to fill the vacant position, the House of People’s Representatives shall only be composed of the existing Members of the House of People’s Representatives.
In the event that there occurs any cause which causes the number of the Members elected on a party-list basis to be less than one hundred, the party-list Members of the House of People’s Representatives shall only be composed of those existing.”
Section4.The provisions of section 86 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand shall be repealed and replaced by the following provisions:
“Section86.The designation of the number of the Members of the House of People’s Representatives that each province should have, and the division of constituencies, shall follow the following procedure:
(1)the number of the inhabitants throughout the Country as evidenced in the civil register announced in the last year before the year of the election shall be balanced with the number of four hundred Members of the House of People’s Representatives, and the obtained number shall be considered the number of inhabitants per one Member;
(2)any province the inhabitants of which are below the standard number of inhabitants per one Member according to (1) shall be able to have one Member of the House of People’s Representatives, with the province being considered a constituency;
(3)any province the inhabitants of which are above the number of inhabitants per one Member shall have one additional Member of the House of People’s Representatives per every number of inhabitants which reaches the standard number of inhabitants per one Member;
(4)after the number of the Members of the House of People’s Representatives for each province has been obtained in accordance with (2) and (3), if the number of the Members of the House of People’s Representatives is still less than four hundred, the province with the highest residue left from the calculation under (3) shall have one additional Member of the House of People’s Representatives, and Members of the House of People’s Representatives shall be increased in accordance with the said procedure for the respective provinces with the next highest residues left from such calculation until the number of four hundred is fulfilled;
(5)any province which can elect more than one Member of the House of People’s Representatives shall be divided into constituencies in the number corresponding to that of the Members of the House of People’s Representatives that it should have, in respect of which the areas of the constituencies must be divided in such a manner that makes them adjoin each other and the numbers of the inhabitants in the constituencies must be close to each other.”
Section5.The provisions of section 91 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand shall be repealed and replaced by the following provisions:
“Section91.In calculating the proportion of candidates on the list of each political party who are to be elected, the votes obtained from the whole Country by each political party shall be summed up and calculated in order to divide the number of the persons to be elected from each political party into the proportion directly in relation to the aforesaid number of the summed up votes. In this respect, the candidates named on the list of each political party shall, in order of their numbers on the list of that political party, be respectively elected in accordance with the standard score thus calculated.
The criteria, procedure, and conditions for the recruitment of candidates in an election of Members of the House of People’s Representatives on a party-list basis, the casting of votes, the counting of votes, the summing up of votes, the announcement of the results of the election, and other relevant activities shall be in accordance with the Organic Act on Elections of Members of the House of People’s Representatives.”
Section6.In the initial period, the provisions of sections 83, 86, and 91 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand as amended by this Constitution shall not be applied until the first general election of Members of the House of People’s Representatives after the promulgation of this Constitution takes place.
Whilst the provisions of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand as amended by this Constitution have not yet been applied by virtue of paragraph 1, the provisions of the mentioned sections prior to being amended by this Constitution and the Organic Act on Elections of Members of the House of People’s Representatives enacted for the implementation of those provisions shall continue to be applied.
General Prayut Chan-o-cha
Prime Minister
Note: The reasons for the promulgation of this Amendment to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand are as follows: Section 83 and section 91 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand designate that the House of People’s Representatives be composed of Members numbering five hundred, of whom three hundred and fifty are Members elected on a constituency basis and one hundred and fifty are Members from political parties’ lists, but this number does not conform to the number of the population in each constituency. If the number of the Members of the House of People’s Representatives is designated to be four hundred, the problems of the people would be taken care of in a more in-depth and efficacious manner, which would be beneficial to the people. In addition, in regard to the calculation of votes for party-list Members of the House of People’s Representatives, there needs to be a criterion which is clear and fair for political parties and which respects the “one person, one vote” [principle]. Providing for two forms of ballot papers to entitle people to choose political parties [with one form] and [choose] constituency-basis candidates [with the other form] during an election of Members of the House of People’s Representatives, would enable them to express their will through the election in a manner more conforming to the truth. It is therefore necessary to enact the Amendment to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand (No 1), 2564 Buddhist Era.
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This work is in the public domain worldwide because it originated in Thailand and is a work under section 7(2) of Thailand's Copyright Act, 2537 BE (1994) (WIPO translation), which provides:
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I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.
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