A United Thai Nation (UTN) list-MP yesterday called for a middle path as the House-Senate committee on referendums met to thrash out its differences over the size of the majority required to pass a charter referendum.
Witthaya Kaewparadai, also a member of the joint panel, said he agreed that at least half of eligible voters must participate in a referendum first, otherwise it would not be considered a referendum.
"A referendum is important and the number of participants must be large enough, which by international standards, is [at least] half [the eligible voters]. For example, if there are 42 million eligible voters, 21 million must take part and the winning vote requires the support of the majority of the voters.
"If the number of participants is small, for example if there are 60 million people and only five million take part in a referendum, I don't think that's a referendum," he said.
Mr Witthaya appeared to favour a "one and a half" majority rule proposed by Chartthaipattana member Nikorn Chamnong, the secretary of the House-Senate referendum committee, to break the impasse.
The "one and a half" majority rule would mean that more than 50% of eligible voters must take part in a referendum and the majority of participants, regardless of numbers, must support it for a referendum to pass.
The Senate wants to retain the double majority rule, a requirement outlined in the Referendum Act, which specifies two conditions before a referendum result can be considered binding.
These are that first, more than 50% of eligible voters must participate, and second, at least 50% those who cast votes must approve it. The House supports a simple majority in which a referendum is adopted if half of those who voted support it. Many MPs also favoured cutting out the requirement that at least half of all eligible voters turn out to vote at the referendum.
Mr Witthaya said the joint committee is likely to vote to decide the outcome if members cannot agree on the size of the majority.