"The EC has finalised the drafting of 10 referendum provisions, including punishment for offences relating to tampering and interfering with the voting process," EC member Sodsri Satayatham said yesterday.

Sodsri reminded politicians that they risked prosecution under the draft bill, as well as the Criminal Code and the Political Parties Act, if they interfered with voting.

Under the provisional timetable for implementing the draft, the Cabinet looks likely to debate the bill on Tuesday before forwarding it to the National Legislative Assembly for deliberation, she said.

The commissioner added the EC would remain in consultation with the Constitu-tion Drafting Assembly (CDA) to coordinate the publicity campaign and other preparations ahead of the referendum.

She said she expected the authorities to spend at least two months raising public awareness on the draft constitution.

Yesterday the CDA agreed not to supervise the referendum and confined its role to assisting the EC. The CDA yesterday voted 58 to one, with one abstention, to pass the draft announcement for organising the referendum.

The assembly's speaker, Noranit Setha-butr, said yesterday that the expected budget of Bt2 billion expected to fund the referendum was about the same amount as that spent on holding a general election.

CDA member Sawat Chotipanit said he persuaded his colleagues to back down from trying to take the responsibility for organising the referendum from the EC.

"In a compromise, the CDA will reserve the right to advise and assist the EC to make the referendum a success," he said.

Another CDA member Watchara Hongprapat said he still wanted the In-terior Ministry to manage the referendum because the cost of organising it may be as low as Bt600 million, while the EC was demanding a far  larger budget.