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 Nearly six months after the army seized power, a 36-member
committee headed by Bavornsak Uwanno, a law academic at the
conservative King Prajadhipok Institute who is known to have
military sympathies, began work on a new charter.
The committee must propose a draft within four months, before
sending it to the National Reform Council and junta, formally known
as the National Council for Peace and Order, for approval. Once
approved, the charter will be Thailand's 20th since it became a
constitutional monarchy in 1932.
"My hope is that the new constitution will put a stop to past
divisions and that the public will be as involved in its drafting as
possible," Thai junta leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha told
reporters on Tuesday.
Some political observers say the charter will follow junta
recommendations and include a clause that will prevent banned
politicians from running in any future elections.
 This will ensure ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and
his allies, which have won every general election since 2001, can
never return to power.
"The committee will likely include a clause that prevents those who
were banned from politics in the past from running in future
elections," said Kan Yuenyong, a political analyst at the Siam
Intelligence Unit think tank.
"This could permanently disqualify some Thaksin allies and seriously
undermine future efforts by Thaksin to win any general election once
the army hands back power."
The army seized power on May 22 in a bid to restore order after
months of political infighting that killed nearly 30 people. It
scrapped a 2007 charter and rolled out an interim constitution that
gave the military sweeping powers and includes an article protecting
the coup-makers from prosecution.
The protests in Bangkok were the latest chapter in a roller coaster
decade of political tumult - much of it centered on Thaksin, a
telecommunications billionaire whose policies endeared him to the
rural and urban poor but made him unpopular with the Bangkok-based
conservative establishment.
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Thaksin was ousted by the army in 2006 and has lived in self-imposed
exile since 2008 to avoid a two-year jail term for graft.
The constitution was then re-written under a military backed
government in an effort to limit Thaksin's influence. But that
failed to block his political machine and just a few years later his
sister, Yingluck, won a general election.
Yingluck was ordered to step down by a court days before the May
coup after she was found guilty of abuse of power.
Since taking power the junta has moved to consolidate power. Prayuth
was appointed prime minister in August and he hand-picked a
government stacked with retired and serving military figures.
Rights groups have criticized the junta - which has outlawed
protests and threatened the media with sanctions for content
critical of the coup - of rights infringements.
Prayuth said on Monday that media should avoid "reporting anything
about" Thaksin.
(Additional reporting Aukkarapon Niyomyat; Editing by Jeremy
Laurence)
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