NCPO to pick all senators

The junta will hand-pick all 250 senators, to be screened by a selection panel, also appointed by it, according to constitution writers.

Earlier in the day, Meechai Ruchupan, chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC), said a junta-appointed selection panel would choose them.

But after the meeting in the afternoon, the CDC said the selection panel would nominate 400 names to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), which will handpick 194.

For the 50 senators coming from professional groups, candidates will elect 200 among themselves and the NCPO will choose 50 from the list to be senators and another 50 on a reserve list.

The draft charter will also spell out the positions of the six ex-officio seats for the top brass, instead of using a broader term of "active state officials" as proposed by the CDC earlier.

In the latest revision, there will still be two groups of senators, 200 of whom will be screened by a selection panel named by the NCPO.

The members of this selection panel will have broad knowledge and non-partisan, said Udom Rathamarit, a CDC spokesman.

The panel will select 400 people and the NCPO will choose 194 among them to be senators in this group.

Earlier story: NCPO to choose senators screening committee

The other six will be ex-officio senators and their positions will be spelled out in the charter — chiefs of the three armed forces and the Supreme Command, the defence permanent secretary, as well as the police chief.

"The NCPO should now feel more comfortable. If we do not specify the positions, there might be disputes why other positions are not qualified. When a military commander is a senator, he doesn't have to be under politicians in all cases," he said.

The senators in this group must be qualified under the permanent clause on senators' qualifications, except the one that requires them to vacate office for five years if they used to be ministers. For the ex-officio group, the qualification of not being active state officials will also be exempted.

The second group of senators will come from 20 professional groups who choose among themselves. The Election Commission will gather 200 names at the district, provincial and national levels. The NCPO will then pick 50 from the list and another 50 as a reserve list.

"We let the NCPO choose again so that both groups of senators will be 'fish from the same water'. Neither won't feel they are appointed and othe other elected, which could affect work," Mr Udom said.

The CDC also bent further to the NCPO's demand on PM candidates by cutting the votes required to choose a PM outside political parties' candidate lists to three fifths (450 of 750 votes) from two thirds (500 votes) proposed by the CDC.