By Prashanth Parameswaran
Official lays out a possible plan for fresh polls now postponed until 2016.
Fresh polls to restore democracy in Thailand following a military coup in May will be delayed until February 2016 at the earliest, the country’s deputy prime minister said on Tuesday.
“I told the U.S. charge d’affaires today elections will take place at the earliest in February 2016,” Wissanu Krea-ngam, one of the government’s top legal experts, said following talks with U.S. Charge d’Affaires W. Patrick Murphy.
Wissamu also laid out a rough timeline for how things might proceed in the run-up to the election. He said the charter draft would be ready by early September 2015, and that the king would probably endorse it within a few weeks. The lawmakers would then take three months to write the necessary constitutional laws up till December 2015, following which the country’s election commission would need 60 to 90 days to carry out the relevant procedures.
But Wissanu also warned that a possible referendum on a new constitution could push back the election date even further till May 2016.
“But if we have to have a referendum, polls could be delayed by a further three months,” he said.
Read the full story at The Diplomat