National Assembly (Thailand)

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The Thai Parliament Building

The National Assembly ( Thai รัฐสภา ไทย , RTGS : Ratthasapha Thai) is the bicameral parliament of Thailand . It was dissolved as a result of the military coup on May 22, 2014 and replaced under the current interim constitution by a national legislative assembly with 220 members selected by the military.

Under the repealed constitution of 2007, the National Assembly consisted of the House of Representatives and the Senate .

Parliament was created in 1932 after the so-called Siamese Revolution , which brought about the transition to constitutional monarchy. It was initially a unicameral parliament , half of which was elected and half of which was appointed. Under the 1946 Constitution, the National Assembly was divided into two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Both chambers had exclusively elected members, with those of the House of Representatives being elected directly and those of the Senate being elected indirectly. In 1952 there was a return to monocameralism, half of the members of the National Assembly were reappointed, from 1957 all members were appointed, and from 1959 to 1969 the parliament was completely dissolved. From 1969 there was again a bicameral parliament, with the members of the Senate being fully appointed. In 1972 parliament was again suspended. From 1974 to 1976 there was again a bicameral system with a directly elected House of Representatives and an indirectly elected Senate. This was again replaced in 1976 by a fully appointed one-chamber parliament, which in 1978 again gave way to a two-chamber parliament with an elected House of Representatives and an appointed Senate. The 1997 constitution provided that both the House of Representatives and the Senate were directly elected.

According to the last constitution of 2007, the House of Representatives with 500 seats was elected partly proportionally through national party lists, partly directly by majority voting in the 375 constituencies. The 150-strong Senate consisted of a directly elected representative from each of the 76 provinces, the remaining Senators were chosen by an election committee and appointed by the King. The President of the National Assembly was always the President of the House of Representatives ex officio, from 2011 until the military coup in May 2014 that was Somsak Kiatsuranont . His deputy was the President of the Senate, from August 2012 until the coup Nikom Wairatpanij .

From 1932 to 1970 the National Assembly met in the Anantasamakhom throne hall of the Dusit palace complex . It has had its own building since 1970, which is located immediately north of the Dusit Palace. The solemn opening sessions of a new legislative period still take place in the Anantasamakhom throne hall.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Canan Atilgan: A new Senate for Thailand (PDF; 36 kB). Country report Thailand, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, March 2008, p. 1

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