การรวมพรรคการเมือง : ศึกษาผลกระทบต่อการเลือกตั้งแบบบัญชีรายชื่อ / บุศรา เข็มทอง = Merger of political parties : impact on the election under a party-list basis / Bussara Kemthong
The mergers of political parties in accordance with the 1997 Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Political Parties Constitutional Act of 1998 did not include the criteria for such mergers . This resulted in a lin a lack of cuipulations in terms of the ranking and status of party list members of parliament who did not merge with major political party. This research has found that the mergers of political parties resulted from two cases : merging that took place either prior or after the announcement by the Election Committee. Mergers prior to the announcement by the Election Committee have never taken place and there are no legal prescriptions barring this from happening. If such a case were to occur it would impact the ranking of party list members of parliament as well as those who are next on the waiting list. This cannot be done since it is a merger carried out for the purpose of securing a seat and not for political purposes. Therefore, a law should exist prohibiting political parties that win below five percent of the seats to enter into any mergers prior to announcements by the Election Committee. In cases where a merger takes place after the Election Committee announces the results it can occur either through merging with a major political party or by establishing a new party. In the first case, if a merger takes place with a major political party, if one were to follow the interpretations according to the 1997 Constitution which aimed at boosting the government's stability by allowing a strong political party to move up the next party list MP or person next on the waiting list of a major political party or a party list member of a party that has been merged that submits a petition to the parliament's ombudsman for consideration by the Constitutional Court. In the cases of party list MPs who do not opt to merge with a major political party will find this cannot be done as it conflicts with the constitution and in so doing his or her status as a party list M.P should be terminated . As for mergers with the intention of establishing a new political party, those next in line of each party should be picked alternation from one party to another to determine which political party should rank first with a name on the waiting list in order to ensure fairness.
