Opposition to drum up people's support

Opposition to drum up people's support

Members of the seven Opposition parties meet at Pheu Thai's headquarters in Bangkok on Monday to discuss their roles. (Photo by Varuth Hirunyatheb)
Members of the seven Opposition parties meet at Pheu Thai's headquarters in Bangkok on Monday to discuss their roles. (Photo by Varuth Hirunyatheb)

Seven parties making up the Opposition will work both inside and outside Parliament to allow people to participate in their main goal of amending the constitution.

Representatives of the seven parties met on Monday to define their roles.

Apart from appointing the Opposition’s whips, the bloc led by the Pheu Thai Party would set up a joint working group to promote people’s participation.

Each party will send two members to join the group and Pol Col Tawee Sodsong, deputy secretary-general of Prachachat Party, will be its chairman. Paophum Rojanasakul, deputy secretary-general of Pheu Thai, will be secretary-general of the group.

The group will coordinate with people, academic institutions, civic organisations and media to set the agenda on how to cooperate in amending the charter, which they view as the key obstacle to the road to democracy.

They also discussed more activities such as checking the qualifications of the prime minister, senators and MPs and talked about plans on local elections.

Chaithawat Tulathon, deputy secretary-general of the Future Forward Party, said forming the joint working group was not an attempt to start street protests.

“We want to create a new dimension of political work to peacefully build democracy during the transition. We also want to see a new model which combines politics outside and inside Parliament.” 

He added all orders and announcements issued by the National Council for Peace and Order and its chief had to be reviewed even though there had been no sign they would no longer be used when the new government took office.

Nikhom Boonviset, leader of the People Power Party, said his party would perform duties seriously along with the public sector.

He pledged to follow up on the Election Commission and team up with people’s groups such as We Fair and other networks. 

 The seven parties making up the Opposition are Pheu Thai, Future Forward, Thai Liberal (Seree Ruam Thai), New Economics, Prachachat, Puea Chat and Thai People Power.

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