The Election Commission (EC) will today proceed with redrawing the electoral boundaries to accommodate an increase in the number of constituency MPs from 350 to 400, according to chairman Ittiporn Boonpracong.
He said the new boundaries would be announced despite the Constitutional Court not yet having issued a ruling on the inclusion of non-Thai citizens in its formula.
"Should the electoral map have to be revised, we're ready. Every province has been told to prepare for this," said Mr Ittiporn.
While maintaining the inclusion of non-Thais is dictated by law, the EC came under pressure to ask the court to rule on the issue for clarity. In response, the poll chiefs last week lodged a petition seeking a ruling.
As the matter involves pressing legal technicalities, it is believed the court should not take too long to consider the petition.
Electoral boundaries must be redrawn for every election to account for population changes. The EC's calculation has one member of parliament per 165,226 members of the public, based on a total population of 66,090,475, as of Dec 31 last year.
Provincial election offices had put up draft electoral maps to gather feedback from stakeholders, including voters and parties. These findings were submitted to the EC to consider during the redrawing.
When finalised, the electoral maps will be published in the Royal Gazette.
In other news, the EC also recently revised regulations on the dissolution of parties to speed up probes into alleged violations of Section 92 of the Political Party Act.
Former EC member Somchai Srisutthiyakorn has provided a summary of the revised regulation which allows the EC to seek a party dissolution via the Constitutional Court if it believes an act hostile to democracy has been committed, or outsiders have dominated, influenced or directed a party's affairs.
Under the revision, the EC must decide whether to accept the petition within seven days, and then has 30 days to mull over making a dissolution request.
