"Some parties have already sought and received approval to hold activities and the CNS is ready to allow more activities if notified in advance in order to avoid any misunderstandings," Sonthi said.

He was reacting to complaints from politicians that the ban - known as the junta's announcement No 15 - might inhibit political parties from participating in the charter drafting process.

He also repeated his stand that he still needed time to restore political normalcy before lifting the ban.

The Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) chairman Noranit Sethabutr said the enforcement of the ban had no impact on the involvement of political parties in the charter rewrite.

"Each party can air its views, solicit public opinions on pertinent issues and present its proposals, preferably in writing, to the CDA," he said. This could be done without having to organise a party convention, he said.

Should a party want to hold a formal meeting, then it should give advance notice to the CNS before doing so, he said.

In regard to the future format for balloting, he said charter writers had not finalised their decision on the issue.

"At one time or another, Thailand has adopted all possible vote formats - be it multi- or single-seat constituencies with ballot numbers assigned either to the parties or the candidates," he said.

He understood why Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva would object to a multi-seat constituency vote with ballot numbers assigned to parties. The issue was still open for debate, he said.

In an interview on Tuesday, Abhisit said his party wanted ballot numbers assigned to candidates in case charter writers decided to adopt the multi-seat constituency vote.