Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva says he is willing to meet Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam to explain his party's experience with the controversial primary voting system, slated for introduction by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA).
Mr Abhisit told the Bangkok Post yesterday he will accept Mr Wissanu's invitation although it is not clear when and where the meeting will take place or whether it will be a one-on-one session.
He said he intended to tell Mr Wissanu that if the primary voting system -- as proposed by the NLA to give party branches and members a say in choosing who their parties can nominate as general election candidates -- went ahead unaltered it would run into practical problems.
Mr Wissanu said he planned to invite Mr Abhisit to explain the practicality of the proposed voting system.
The Democrats experimented with the system for a year in 2013 before rejecting it.
Mr Wissanu said there was still time to amend the primary vote proposal in the organic bill governing political parties which was passed recently by the NLA.
Since the issue has proved contentious, a joint panel will be formed, comprising five NLA members, five Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) members and the Election Commission (EC) chairman, to decide if the primary voting system decided on by the NLA's scrutiny committee was practical or whether it needed changes.
If the joint panel determines that a constitutional quagmire exists in the organic bill, it must be raised by the NLA for deliberation in the Constitutional Court.
In an interview with the Bangkok Post, NLA member Somchai Sawaengkan said the assembly will forward the organic bill to the EC on Monday. The EC will then prepare counter points to the primary vote issue and send them back to the NLA in 10 days. After that, the joint panel will be set up and given 15 days to wrap up its work.
As well as speaking to Mr Wissanu, Mr Abhisit can also voice his opinions about primary voting to the CDC or the EC so his input can be compiled as material for discussion by the joint panel.
Mr Somchai said he believed the proposed primary voting system would remain intact after the joint panel discussion.
However, Mr Abhisit believes it could be against the spirit of the constitution which intends for small parties to be given a fair chance in elections. He thinks the proposed system is not favourable to small parties, as setting up branches and getting members to vote for potential MP candidates requires a lot of means and resources which most small parties do not have.
In a party-list election system, primaries also do not guarantee list candidates will represent a broadly distributed segment of the population as party members could nominate candidates with similar backgrounds.