Selective blame
Re: "NACC timing questioned", (Editorial, Feb 11).Re: "NACC timing questioned", (Editorial, Feb 11).
Maybe the delay by NACC on the case of 44 former MPs of the defunct Move Forward Party, most of them fled to the new party People's Party, might have been the play of plaintiff's lawyers who keep asking for more time to keep submitting more documents so they could keep their seats in parliament?
My question is whether the Post has taken this legal tactic into consideration before penning your editorial, instead of assigning all blame to the NACC. Without balancing information, this editorial is lopsided. Maybe the editorial lead might be on purpose, as it may align with your political beliefs.
RL
Coalition maths
Re: "Next government won't be a grey one", (Opinion, Feb 12).
Khun Nattaya Chetchotiros' column puts forward the proposition that the "popularity vote" (which she equates with the party-list vote) provides the best reflection of voter support for each of the competing political parties.
She goes on to suggest that formation of the coalition government should be "based on new political arithmetic that takes into account the popularity vote [party-list vote] a party receives, rather than the total number of constituency MP seats." Taking account of constituency seats won has the limitation of reflecting "approval ratings in specific localities towards particular candidates".
Using this approach, the most popular coalition government would consist of the People's Party, Pheu Thai (PT) and the Democrats. These three parties received a total of 18.6 million party-list votes and 59 party-list seats.
By contrast, Bhumjaithai (BJT), PT, and the Democrats received a total of 14.8 million party-list votes and 47 party-list seats. They trailed by 3.8 million votes and 12 seats. Alternatively, the BJT, PT and Klatham parties received a total of 11.7 million party-list votes and 37 party-list votes (a margin of 6.9 million votes and 22 seats).
Using Khun Nattaya's "new political arithmetic" formula, it is clear that the People's Party won the most votes and therefore should have the first opportunity of forming a coalition government.
While this may seem like a new approach in determining which party or combination of parties truly has the support of the people, it's worth noting that since 2001, when the party-list ballot was introduced, no party has ever won the most number of seats without winning the party-list vote. The one exception is this year's election, where BJT's mastery of ban yai politics paid off handsomely in terms of the number of constituency seats won.
David Lowe
Act on guns
Re: "School shooting suspect arrested", (BP, Feb 12).
And so yet another gun crime with a school principal fatally shot. Why can't Thailand follow the example set by Australia after the Port Arthur, Tasmania mass shootings in 1996 and arrange an amnesty for all to hand in their guns? There are some who need them for legal purposes, perhaps, but I suspect the majority don't. Time to move up the civilisation rankings
Jeremy Macbean
