Public to see final draft on July 6
Constitution Drafting Assembly member Pichien Amnartworaprasert holds up a copy of the draft charter during a press briefing at the Parliament building yesterday.
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The 35-member Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) is expected to complete a revised draft of the charter by Sunday before forwarding it for final debate by the 100-member Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA).
The CDA will deliberate on the revised draft from Monday until June 30, and the vetted draft will be finalised for public scrutiny by July 6 - a month before it goes to a referendum. "The CDA has revised some 70 provisions as per suggestions from the 12 organisations vetting the first draft and a series of public hearings," CDA secretary Somkid Lertpaitoon said yesterday. The revised provisions included certain clauses contained in the motions filed by CDA members, but the CDC agreed to the changes without debating them, Somkid said. One of the unresolved issues is how to revise the selection process for independent organisations after judges objected to being involved because of fears that the courts might become politicised, he said. "The CDC will have to come up with an alternative before Sunday," he said. Meanwhile, CDA member Pichien Amnartworaprasert said his motion to enshrine Buddhism as state religion was still intact even though his fellow member Sodsri Satayatham had withdrawn her support. He said he had sufficient votes for the motion to be sponsored. He also denied Sodsri's claim he had backtracked from his pledge to support her motion on the crisis panel in exchange for her endorsement of his motion. CDC chairman Prasong Soonsiri said he expected to complete rewriting the draft yesterday so there should be time to polish wordings in time for Sunday's deadline. Prasong blamed CDA members for generating bad publicity about conflicting views on revised provisions in a bid to sway the CDC to meet their demands. "Contrary to its perceived image, the CDC has reached amicable agreements on revised provisions," he said. He was also confident that politicians linked to the ousted government would not succeed in swaying voters to reject the new constitution in the referendum. "I believe funds have been spread around by those individuals struggling to regain power but I don't think they can dupe the people," he said.
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