According to PM's Office Minister Chousak Sirinil, political parties are expected to support a charter amendment proposal to prevent "overboard" interpretations of ethical standards for political office-holders.
He said the main opposition, the People's Party, proposed section-by-section amendments to the charter, one of which would revise the wording related to ethical standards to keep the term from being broadly or loosely interpreted and used against political post-holders.
The move follows the Constitutional Court's ruling last month, which dismissed Srettha Thavisin as prime minister for an ethical violation related to the appointment of ex-convict Pichit Chuenban as Prime Minister's Office minister.
Mr Chousak said the Pheu Thai Party initially brought the issue to the attention of coalition partners, and it is widely expected that all government and opposition parties will support this amendment proposal.
However, although the government wants to speed up section-by-section amendments, this matter deals with the qualifications of political office-holders and must be put to a public referendum, he said. He said the proposal would be included in the first round of a planned referendum, asking the public if they agreed with the rewrite of the 2017 charter, noting that the ethical standard issue requires only one referendum round.
According to Mr Chousak, the planned referendum on the charter rewrite is expected to be held early next year and coincide with the nationwide elections of provincial administrative organisations.
Recently, the House of Representatives passed the amendments to the referendum bill to replace the referendum's double majority requirement for charter amendment with a single majority.
The double majority refers to a requirement of the Referendum Act, which specifies two conditions before a referendum result can be considered binding. First, more than 50% of eligible voters must have participated in the referendum, and the majority of those who cast votes must approve it.
The Senate is scrutinising the bill, which voted 179 to 5, with three abstentions, to pass it in its first reading.
Mr Chousak said if the Senate makes significant changes to the bill, it will be reviewed by the House one more time, noting the House is highly likely to insist on its version.
