Somkid Lertpaitoon, secretary of the Constitution Drafting Committee, said he believed most drafters were against leaving the option open for an unelected PM, though there were many supporters of the idea.

He said voting on the disputed issues might be inevitable.

Somkid said that in the first charter draft prepared for a three-day deliberation beginning today, there would be 80 MPs from the proportional system of representation, down from 100 in the previous constitution.

He said drafters were trying to avoid problems caused by loopholes or unclear provisions in the 1997 Constitution.

A subcommittee yesterday agreed to equip the Supreme Court with the power to impeach Parliament members. The defunct 1997 charter gave the power to the Constitution Court.

The decision was passed despite a concern that the Supreme Court might be too involved with politics, which could undermine its credibility in the long term.

Meanwhile, Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) chairman Noranit Sethabutr yesterday vowed to probe an allegation that some CDA members had exploited budgets of public hearings to build their popularity for running campaigns for the next election.

'We must catch the wrongdoers," he said. CDA member Chirmsak Pinthong told yesterday's CDA session that six members of the public-hearing panel in a northern province misused the budget.

They had a close relationship with a national politician and hired canvassers and people belonging to a political party to attend their hearings, he claimed.

They even gave free jackets to people and later held a party funded by state money, he added.