Parit urges the Speaker of the House of Representatives to stop setting fixed closing times for meetings, noting that time constraints squeeze debate and cause MPs to have their microphones cut off. He suggests extending meeting hours as necessary.
On 3 September 2026, Parit Watcharasindhu, MP from the People's Party, gave an interview regarding Chiang Mai MP Pattharaphong Leelaphat's use of profanity during the debate on the Draft Clean Air Management Act B.E. ... or the Clean Air Act.
Parit said he views the issue in two parts: whether the language used was appropriate. He believes that since Pattharaphong has already withdrawn his words, the matter should now be considered closed.
Parit continued that regarding overall parliamentary work, he proposes greater cooperation from all sectors, including the Speaker and both Deputy Speakers, to allow parliamentary sessions to continue into the evening or night when agenda items remain under consideration.
Parit also said one root cause of yesterday's problem was that the speaking schedule was arranged to end by 7:00 p.m. Initially, speakers were allotted 7 minutes but this was cut to 5 minutes. Then, when someone exceeded that by a few seconds, they were immediately cut off even if they were concluding their points. This happened not only to Pattharaphong but also to People's Party MPs from Chiang Mai and Nakhon Ratchasima, who faced similar issues of being cut off just after 5 minutes.
Parit explained that the root of the problem is that the Speaker's schedule was set to end at 7:00 p.m., whereas in previous parliaments, when the agenda was long, all sides were willing to extend sessions into the evening or night. But in this parliament, there have been several attempts to end meetings by a certain time, squeezing the time available for both opposition and government MPs to debate and resulting in reduced speaking time or fewer speakers.
Parit added that attention should be paid today because the House will discuss the Election Commission’s annual reports for 2024 and 2025, which cover the Election Commission’s performance during the Senate election period. He said they had already discussed with the Speaker yesterday morning and hopes there will be no attempts to close the session quickly to block debate on this matter.
"Therefore, speaking in the spirit of seeking cooperation from all sides, I want to find agreement with the government whip and the Speaker and both Deputy Speakers to allocate time so that parliamentary sessions can extend into the evening or night as necessary for the agenda. We should not set fixed deadlines for session closure that limit the ability of all members to debate," Parit said. Parit concluded his remarks.