Anutin Leads Bhumjaithai Team to Submit Constitutional Amendment Draft to Parliament Speaker Tomorrow, Opening Path for 100-Member Charter Drafting Assembly

At 4:25 p.m. on May 19, 2025, at Bhumjaithai Party headquarters, Deputy Prime Minister Paradon Prissananantakul, representing the party as MP for Ang Thong, announced that the party's parliamentary caucus voted unanimously with 190 signatures to propose a constitutional amendment. The draft would amend Article 256 by adding Chapter 15/1 to create a new constitution, in accordance with the results of a referendum supported by 21 million voters on February 8, 2025.

Paradon stated that tomorrow (May 20), Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Interior Minister, as Bhumjaithai Party leader, will lead party MPs to submit the amendment draft to the Parliament speaker around 10:30-11:00 a.m.

The Bhumjaithai draft includes two main modifications: expanding Parliament's duties and powers by amending Article 156, adding Chapter 15/1 for new charter creation, and inserting Articles 256/1 through 256/23 to establish a 100-member Constitutional Drafting Assembly (CDA) tasked with completing the new constitution within 360 days from the first CDA session.

The CDA membership will be drawn from qualified individuals and interested parties from various provinces, with one representative and three alternates selected per province, then submitted to Parliament for proportional selection based on parliamentary member distribution.

To address previous conflicts that derailed earlier charter amendment attempts, Bhumjaithai's new draft has adjusted the Senate approval requirement for stages 1 and 3 from one-third to one-quarter of senators, expected to facilitate negotiations in committee. Notably, the new constitutional draft will not modify Chapters 1-2.