House of Representatives สภาผู้แทนราษฎร Sapha Phuthaen Ratsadon | |
|---|---|
| Currently dissolved Most recent:26th House of Representatives | |
 Seal of the National Assembly | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| Leadership | |
Vacant since 12 December 2025 | |
First Deputy Speaker | Vacant since 12 December 2025 |
Second Deputy Speaker | Vacant since 12 December 2025 |
Government Chief Whip | Vacant since 12 December 2025 |
Vacant since 12 December 2025 | |
Opposition Chief Whip | Vacant since 12 December 2025 |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 500 |
 | |
Political groups |
|
Length of term | Four years |
| Elections | |
| Parallel voting: First-past-the-post voting (400 seats) Party-list proportional representation (100 seats) | |
Last election | 8 February 2026 |
Next election | By 2030 |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| Phra Suriyan Chamber Sappaya-Sapasathan Dusit District Bangkok, Thailand | |
| Website | |
| www.parliament.go.th | |
| Rules | |
| Parliament Rules | |
TheHouse of Representatives (Thai:สภาผู้แทนราษฎร,RTGS: Sapha Phuthaen Ratsadon,pronounced[sā.pʰāːpʰûː.tʰɛ̄ːnrâːt.sā.dɔ̄ːn]) is thelower house of theNational Assembly of Thailand, thelegislative branch of theThai government. The system of government ofThailand is that of aconstitutional monarchy and aparliamentary democracy. The system of the Thai legislative branch is modelled after theWestminster system. The House of Representatives has 500 members, of which 400 areelected through single member constituency elections, while the other 100 are chosen throughparty listsparallel voting.
The House of Representatives has been abolished several times as a result of military coups, most recently as a result of the2014 Thai coup d'état, when it was replaced with theunicameralNational Legislative Assembly, a body of 250 members, selected by theNational Council for Peace and Order. After the2017 constitution was promulgated in April 2017, the House of Representatives was reestablished.[1]
The Cabinet, no less than 20 members of parliament, or 10,000 eligible voters through a petition may introduce a bill. However, if it is a money bill (a bill that has provisions concerning taxes, budgetary affairs or currency), it may be introduced only with the endorsement of the Prime Minister.
Where a bill's status as a money bill may be in question, a session between the speaker and all house committee chairs may be convened to consider the status of the bill. The decision is made by a simple majority vote. If the vote is tied, the speaker must cast a tie-breaking vote.
When the process of consideration ends in the House and the bill is agreed to, the bill is sent to the senate for further deliberations; of which the process must be done within 60 days. The deadline for money bills is 30 days. If the senate is not able to deliberate within the time limit, the bill is considered to be agreed to by the senate.
If the bill is agreed to by the whole of the National Assembly, the prime minister must wait 5 days in order to give people the opportunity to challenge the bill's constitutionality. After which, the prime minister has 20 days to present the bill to the monarch for royal assent.
Any emergency act passed by the cabinet must be sent to the house for consideration without delay to be examined. If the house approves of the emergency act, it becomes an ordinary act. If not, the emergency act ceases to have effect after the decision has been published in thegovernment gazette for one day.
The 2017 Thai Constitution stipulates that the budget must be written in the form of an act, and in the introduction of a budget bill the government must show sources of income and estimates of further income, standards and measures of outcome and relevance to the 20 Year National Strategy and other national development plans. The budget must also adhere to guidelines outlined in the State Fiscal and Financial Disciplines Act.
The process of considering the budget is almost the same as considering a bill, although the deliberation deadline is extended to 105 days, and the senate is not able to amend the budget and must vote on it within 20 days.
A member of parliament may submit a question to a minister both in writing and orally. Questions to a minister may be asked without the question being submitted in advance. A minister may refuse to answer the question if the answer would risk national security or if they consider it not to be in the national interest.
Ministers assigning civil servants or other people to answer in their place is commonplace practice rather than the exception.
No less than one fifth of all the members of parliament may introduce a motion to debate about a vote of no confidence in individual ministers or the entire cabinet. A simple majority is required for the motion to pass, and subsequently for the minister or the entire cabinet to cease.
Committees may be set up by the house to carry out affairs or investigate matters, or to study matters and report to the house according to a set time frame. A minister may be held accountable to the committee, and it is within their duty to aid the committee in the course of an investigation or to find facts by ordering civil servants within their ministry for them to testify in the committee or to comply with information requests.
Prior to a general election, each political party may put forward up to three candidates for prime minister. Only those candidates nominated by political parties winning 5 percent of the seats (25), and endorsed by at least 10 percent of elected members (50), may be considered for election as prime minister.
A candidate must win an absolute majority (251 votes) to be elected prime minister. Until 2024, the transitional Senate participated in the election of the prime minister. After the2023 election, this mechanism was used to block the election ofPita Limjaroenrat, despite him enjoying majority support in the House.
TheHouse of Representatives was established after theRevolution of 1932, when theKhana Ratsadon (the "People's Party"), overthrew theabsolute monarchy and replaced it with a system ofconstitutional monarchy. When KingPrajadhipok signed thetemporary constitution of 1932, he established the first legislative assembly in Thailand, It was an entirely royally-appointed chamber. The first session of thePeople's Assembly was held on 28 June 1932 in theAnanta Samakhom Throne Hall. From then on, the House has existed in various forms:
See more at:Constitutions of Thailand
The qualifications to be acandidate for the House of Representatives were outlined in Chapter VII, Part II, Section 97 of the 2017 Constitution. A candidate must be a citizen ofThailandby birth only, and twenty-five years of age or older on election day. Candidates for constituency seats must have some connection to theprovince in which they intended to stand as a candidate. This may include: being a voter and therefore on theelectoral register of the province for at least five years directly before the election, being born in the province, attending an educational institution in the province for not less than five academic years, or having a house or having been in public service in the province for five years. Politically, a candidate must be a member of onepolitical party for a period of at least ninety days before election day, except in cases ofearly dissolution, in which case thirty days is the minimum period. This is done to discourageparty switching before the election. There are noindependent candidates.
Those specifically barred from being candidates were those: addicted to drugs, declaredbankrupt, unable to vote (see voter eligibility below), formerconvicted felons (the individual must wait for five years after release to become eligible), removed from public service for beingcorrupt orincompetent, had assets confiscated due to embezzlement and finally, had assets in any newspaper or mass media business, and the individual must not be a member of thegovernment orcivil service,Senate,local administrations, member of thejudiciary or otherindependent agencies.
The House of Representatives has 500 members. 400 members are directly elected in single constituency elections byfirst-past-the-post voting. The 400 constituencies are divided by population according to thecensus andtambons. The other 100 members are elected based onparty-list proportional representation. In Thai general elections, voters have two votes: one to select the member of parliament for their constituency and the second to choose which party they prefer. Seats are assigned to parties according to thed'Hondt method.
In accordance with the2017 Constitution of Thailand, a general election is held every 4 years. TheKing with the advice of the prime minister is able todissolve the House of Representatives at any time through aroyal decree. Elections are held underuniversal suffrage; every voter must be acitizen of Thailand, if not by birth then by being a citizen for 5 years. The voter must be at least 18 years old on the day of the election. Those barred from voting in House elections include members of theclergy, those suspended from the privilege for various reasons, detainees under legal or court orders and being of unsound mind or of mental infirmity.
The term of the House of Representatives is exactly four years from the previouselection day. Upon the expiration of the House, the Monarch issues a decree calling for ageneral election to the House, in which the date of the election is to be announced. This has to be done within forty-five days of the expiration. The date of the election is the same for the entire Kingdom.
The Monarch holds theroyal prerogative to dissolve the House before its expiration. The same rules apply to early dissolutions as to regular dissolutions, except that the time-frame for the election is between 45 and 60 days of the dissolution. Because the royal prerogative is exercised on the advice of the Prime Minister, in practice the prime minister holds the power to call an election at any time. Acting prime ministers do not have the power to call an early election, seeLascelles Principles.
Members of the House of Representatives are generally calledMembers of Parliament or MPs (Thai:สมาชิกสภาผู้แทนราษฎร or ส.ส.). The membership of the House of Representatives commences on election day. If there is a vacancy in the membership of the House, and it is not due to expiration or dissolution, it must be filled. Vacancies occur due to death, resignation, conviction and/or expulsion (only by aparliamentary party through a 3/4 majority vote). If the vacancy is of a constituency member then aby-election must be held within forty days of the vacancy, unless the vacancy occurs less than 180 days before the expiry of the term of the House.
If the vacancy occurs in a party-list seat, the vacancy is filled by the Speaker of the House of Representatives by submitting the name of the next candidate in theparty list (submitted on election day) to be published in theRoyal Gazette. This must be done within seven days. If no name was found then the vacancy remains unfilled. Members of the House who have filled a vacancy under either of these procedures can only remain in the House for the remainder of its present term.
The executive committee of House of Representatives consists of onespeaker and twodeputy speakers to be its presiding officers. TheSpeaker of the House is also theex officioPresident of the National Assembly of Thailand. The election is done by asecret ballot in the first session; after a resolution is passed; the elected would be formally approved by the King. The Speaker and Deputy Speakers of the House cannot be members of the cabinet or any political party executive committee. The speaker and his or her deputies are not entitled to represent partisan interests and must exercise their powers on anon-partisan basis.
The current Constitution does not require that thePrime Minister and theMinisters be members of the House of Representatives, although previous constitutions did require this. After the first session, the House must vote in a resolution to elect a Prime Minister, after which the King formally approves him or her. The Prime Minister-elect is not necessarily the leader of the largest party in the House. However, the electoral system ususally results in ahung parliament.
The prime minister is limited to eight years in office, not counting terms in acaretaker capacity. This is equal to two full terms of the House.
After the appointment of theCabinet, the King appoints the officialLeader of the Opposition of Thailand. The Leader of the Opposition is the leader of the largest party with no members holding ministerial positions. The Royal appointment is countersigned by the President of the National Assembly. The Leader of the Opposition leads theShadow Cabinet of Thailand.
| ||||||||||||
| 1932 constitution | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1933 |
| |||||||||||
| 1937 |
| |||||||||||
| 1938 |
| |||||||||||
| 1946 |
| |||||||||||
| 1947 constitution | ||||||||||||
| 1948 |
| |||||||||||
| 1952 constitution | ||||||||||||
| 1952 |
| |||||||||||
| Feb 1957 |
| |||||||||||
| Dec 1957 |
| |||||||||||
| 1968 constitution | ||||||||||||
| 1969 |
| |||||||||||
| 1974 constitution | ||||||||||||
| 1975 |
| |||||||||||
| 1976 |
| |||||||||||
| 1978 constitution | ||||||||||||
| 1979 |
| |||||||||||
| 1983 |
| |||||||||||
| 1986 |
| |||||||||||
| 1988 |
| |||||||||||
| 1991 constitution | ||||||||||||
| Mar 1992 |
| |||||||||||
| Sep 1992 |
| |||||||||||
| 1995 |
| |||||||||||
| 1996 |
| |||||||||||
| 1997 constitution | ||||||||||||
| 2001 |
| |||||||||||
| 2005 |
| |||||||||||
| 2006 |
| |||||||||||
| 2007 constitution | ||||||||||||
| 2007 |
| |||||||||||
| 2011 |
| |||||||||||
| 2014 |
| |||||||||||
| 2017 constitution | ||||||||||||
| 2019 |
| |||||||||||
| 2023 |
| |||||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
.svg)
