House of Representatives (Thailand)

The House of Representatives was established after the Revolution of 1932, when the Khana Ratsadon (the "People's Party"), overthrew the absolute monarchy and replaced it with a system of constitutional monarchy. When King Prajadhipok signed the temporary constitution of 1932, he established the first legislative assembly in Thailand, It was an entirely royally-appointed chamber. The first session of the People's Assembly was held on June 28, 1932, in the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. From then on, the House existed in various forms until it was abolished in 2014:

See more at: Constitutions of Thailand

• 1946 – The 1946 constitution established a fully elected House of Representatives.
• 1949 – On June 5, 1949, Orapin Chaiyakan became the first woman to be elected to hold a post in the National Assembly of Thailand (specifically, the House of Representatives).[2][3]
• 1952 – Establishment of the unicameral National Assembly with 123 members.
• 1959 – The House was banned by Sarit Dhanarajata.
• 1968 – The House was re-established with 219 members.
• 1972 – The House was banned by Thanom Kittikachorn.
• 1974 – Establishment of the House of Representatives.
• 1976 – Establishment of a unicameral National Assembly with 360 royally-appointed members.
• 1978 – Return of an elected House with 301 members.
• 1991 – Establishment of a unicameral National Assembly with 292 appointed members.
• 1997 – Establishment of a 500-member House of Representatives, 400 directly elected with 100 elected through proportional representation.
• 2006 – Following the coup, an interim charter was signed establishing a 250-member National Legislative Assembly.
• 2007 – Return to 500-member House with 375 members elected through single constituency elections and 125 appointed through party-list proportional representation, established, by referendum under the 2007 Constitution of Thailand.
• 2014 – Abolished as a result of the 2014 Thai coup d'état.
• 2017 – Re-established following the primulgation of the 2017 constitution.

The qualifications to be a candidate for the House of Representatives were outlined in Section 101, Part 2, Chapter 6 of the 2007 Constitution. The candidate had to be a citizen of Thailand by birth only, age of twenty-five or older on election day, and born in the province in which they intended to stand as a candidate. The candidate must have been a voter and therefore had to be on the electoral register for at least five years directly before the election, and must also had a house or have been in public service in the province for five years. The candidate must also had been a member of an educational institution in that province for at least five consecutive years. Politically, a candidate had to be a member of one political party for a period of at least ninety days before election day, except in cases of dissolution where thirty days was the minimum period. This was done to discourage party switching before the election. For party list candidates, they must also had to meet the same qualifications except for the provincial restrictions. They were instead divided in lists based on provincial groups.

Those specifically barred from being candidates were those: addicted to drugs, declared bankrupt, unable to vote (see voter eligibility below), former convicted felons (the individual had to wait for five years after release to become eligible), removed from public service for being corrupt or incompetent, had assets confiscated due to embezzlement and finally, the individual had not been a member of the government or civil service, Senate, local administrations, member of the judiciary or other independent agencies.

Before its abolishment, the House of Representatives had 500 members. 375 members were directly elected in single constituency elections by first-past-the-post voting. The 375 constituencies were divided by population according to the census and tambons. The other 125 members were voted based on 'proportional representation' it is actually in truth a parallel voting system or more precisely the Mixed Member Majoritarian system (MMM). In Thai general elections, voters had two votes: one to select the member of parliament for their constituencies and the second to choose which party they prefer. Seats were assigned to parties as a result through the d'Hondt method.

In accordance with the 2007 Constitution of Thailand, a general election was held every 4 years. Dissolution could happen anytime, which was done by the King with the advice of the prime minister through the use of the royal decree. Elections were held under universal suffrage; every voter had to be a citizen of Thailand, if not by birth then by being a citizen for 5 years. The voter had to be over 18 years old before the year the election was held. Voting in elections were also mandatory as missing an election would result in the loss of the right to be involved in political activities. Those barred from voting in House elections were members of the clergy, those suspended from the privilege for various reasons, detainees under legal or court orders and being of unsound mind or of mental infirmity.

The term of the House of Representatives was exactly four years from the previous election day. Upon the expiration of the House, the King would issue a decree calling for a general election of the House, in which the date of the election had to be announced. This had to be done within forty days of the expiration. The date of the election had to be the same for the entire Kingdom.

The King held the royal prerogative to dissolve the House before its expiration. When this happened a royal decree was issued where the election date was announced; this had to be done in no less than forty days and not more than sixty days from the date of the dissolution. The reasons and circumstances of a dissolution could be made only once.

Members of the House of Representatives were generally called Members of Parliament or MPs (Thai: สมาชิกสภาผู้แทนราษฎร or ส.ส.). The membership of the House of Representatives commenced on election day. If there was a vacancy in the membership of the House, and it was not due to expiration or dissolution, it had to be re-occupied. Vacancies could occur due to death, resignation, conviction and/or expulsion (only by a parliamentary party through a 3/4 majority vote). If the vacancy was of a constituency member then an election had to be held within forty days of the vacancy, unless it was less than 180 days of the present term of the House, then the vacancy could remain.

In the case where the vacancy was made by a proportional representative member, the vacancy would be filled by the Speaker of the House of Representatives by submitting the name of the next candidate in the party list (submitted on election day) to be published in the Royal Gazette. This had to be done within seven days. If no name was found then the vacancy could remain unfilled. Members of the House who had filled a vacancy under either of these procedures could only remain in the House for the remainder of its present term.

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Royal Decrees Dissolving the House of Representatives of Thailand

• Constitutions of Thailand
• 2007 Constitution of Thailand
• National Assembly of Thailand

• Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand 2007
• Background Note: Thailand: U.S. State Department public domain document

• https://web.archive.org/web/20060519150557/http://www.parliament.go.th/main.php
• https://web.archive.org/web/20080513022240/http://www.parliament.go.th/files/mainpage.htm
• Lists and Information of MPs