Government officials, many of whom are generals, have missed more than 100 voting sessions in the Senate, citing “personal reasons” or that the meetings were “unimportant” for their absences.
President of the Senate Pornphet Wichitcholchai said on Monday that in previous meetings, there were only seven voting occasions that were considered to be “important.” The rest were deemed “unimportant” as they were just voting on senate regulations.
“Personal errands” was the given reason for why five out of six government officials, all of whom are armed forces, missed voting sessions in the senate, according to Defense Ministry Spokesman Khongcheep Tantaravanich to reporters on Monday.
“I am sure all of them will be able to explain it,” he said at the ministry.
According to the 2017 Constitution drafted by the previous Junta (the National Council for Peace and Order), there is a quota for the armed forces and the police in the senate.
This means that the defence permanent secretary (General Nat Intharacharoen), head of the armed forces (General Pornpipat Benyasri), army chief (General Apirat Kongsompong), navy chief (Admiral Luechai Rutdit), air force chief (Air Chief Marshal Chaiyapruek Tishyasarin) and police chief (Police General Chakthip Chaijinda) automatically became senators.
Voting in the senate is one of the senators’ top priorities.
The constitution also states that a senator could lose his or her seat if they miss more than one-fourth of its 120 meetings without permission from the president of the senate.
According to iLaw which broke the news, there have been 145 meetings so far, and five out of six head of security forces were in the top ten list of absentees.
Most noticeably was Air Chief Marshal Chaiyapruek Tishyasarin who only came to one meeting. General Apirat Kongsompong and Air Chief Marshal Chaiyapruek Tishyasarin attended two meetings. General Pornpipat Benyasri only sat in on eight meetings while General Nat Intharacharoen came to ten meetings out of 145 meetings.
All 250 senators were appointed by the previous Junta and all of them received a monthly wage of more than 100,000 baht from taxpayers.
The revelation that many senators have missed more than 50 per cent of the senate meetings due to reasonings such as they were “not that important” or “personal errands” have angered many citizens on Monday.
