"The proposal is a tougher version than the original idea to ban those party executives found guilty of vote-buying," CDC deputy chairman Wicha Mahakhun said.

The proposal is still being debated and will have no impact on the May 30 verdict on the two electoral fraud cases involving the Thai Rak Thai and Democrat parties, Wicha said.

"The proposed ban, if approved, will shatter the career of many political veterans, and has prompted some CDC members to offer a compromise to insert a temporary exemption for the two parties' executives involved in the two fraud cases," he said.

The CDC has not finalised its decision on the matter as its members remain split on whether the ban for life is too severe and whether it would be a punishment in addition to penalties already imposed by the courts under relevant laws, he said.

The CDC yesterday convened a hearing attended by 14 civic groups to critique the first draft of the new constitution.

After the hearing, participants blamed the CDC for insincerity as each group was allotted only 10 minutes to air their views.

Meanwhile, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said the draft charter would not be rejected by the Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) if the charter writers make changes taking into account the suggestions of 12 advisory organisations.

Some academics have urged the CDA to reject the draft rather than present it to the people in a referendum, but the Democrat leader disagreed.

"The drafters have time to review some issues suggested by the 12 organisations and adjust the draft to be democratic," he said.

The charter writers will have to complete a rewrite of the first draft by factoring in opinions aired through a series of public hearings and reports submitted by the 12 organisations vetting the draft, including the government and the junta.

Upon completion of the second draft, the 100-member CDA is expected to debate and vote on it by July 6.

Meanwhile, CDC chairman Prasong Soonsiri said the academics should read the whole draft before opposing it, adding that if they consider the draft as being beneficial to the people, they should accept it.

Prasong was commenting after a number of academics said the draft charter failed to create a real system of checks and balances between the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

He said that sometimes things cannot be as theoretically ideal as the academics want, but the drafters had tried to insert measures to ensure clean elections and prevent vote buying, thus ensuring political reform.

Prasong also said a proposal to ban executives of dissolved parties from all political activity for five years would be considered during a meeting next Monday.

"If the majority agree [on the proposed rule] the drafting committee will include it in the draft," said Prasong.