Karun Saingam said he was checking into whether the old power lobbied kamnan and village heads to pick these NPA candidates. They needed only 30-40 votes to represent one short-listed NPA member, he said.

"I felt shocked to hear this. It's so easy to buy votes. If there are about 40-50 people using this method, then what will the new constitution look like?"

NPA member Seri Suwanpha-non did not rule out a bloc vote in the selection of NPA members.

Sombun Thongburan, a former senator, said he had lost faith in the Council for National Security because he had seen bloc voting in the process of selecting the 2000 NPA members. "Local government officials in Yasothon all belong to the Thai Rak Thai Party. There wasn't any true public participation in the process," he said.

Rumours were rife that a politician offered local government officials Bt10,000 each to pick the NPA members, he said.

General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, head of the Council for National Security, denied that the CNS was pushing for the appointment of the prime minister in the new constitution, saying he had no idea and had never given it a thought.

Sonthi said the matter rested with the 35 constitution drafters to be selected. "We will suggest that the 1997 constitution is the best and look at this one and rely on it."

The military and CNS have no say over this point and the public would be allowed to take part in making the decision through public hearings, he said.

Sonthi ruled out any bloc voting in the selection of 200 people from the 1982 National People's Assem-bly members. Each NPA member has to select three. "They don't know each other so how can there be a vote bloc?" he said.