A National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) panel has come up with proposals calling for more stringent measures to be written into organic laws to deter politicians from cheating in elections with penalties including a proposed ban from politics for life.
The CDC is responsible for drawing up the new constitution's laws on such issues as the election, the Senate and political parties.
Mr Wanchai said the NRSA panel's proposals are aimed at ensuring elections are free from fraud. The proposals call for more stringent measures as a deterrent.
The panel has concluded that party leaders and executives must see to it that their party members will not commit poll fraud, Mr Wanchai said
Under the proposal, if party members are found guilty of poll fraud and their party leaders or executives are aware of it, but choose to overlook or are guilty of wrongdoing themselves, the party and its executives will also be held responsible.
They would face a ban from politics for life, as well as criminal action. In the previous constitution, the ban lasted for five years.
If the poll fraud results in a re-run of an election, the party leader and executives will be made to pay for the costs involved in holding a poll re-run, Mr Wanchai said.
As for party candidates found guilt of poll fraud, they will also be banned from running for election for life and face a jail term of up to 10 years without suspension, Mr Wanchai said.
The NRSA panel has also proposed that a statue of limitations for poll candidates who committee poll fraud last 20 years, he added. The panel has recommended that poll candidates must be prohibited from offering support to finance traditional festivities, such as weddings, funerals and ordinations in the constituencies they contest to prevent "indirect vote-buying", Mr Wanchai said.
The panel also proposed that the public be able to file poll fraud complaints directly to the Election Committee, instead of only state agencies as it was in the past.
Seree Suwanpanont, chairman of the NRSA committee on political reform, also said the panel proposed that eligible voters who fail to exercise their voting rights be stripped of some rights.
In particular, government officials who fail to go to vote should face harsher penalties than the public by being subjected to disciplinary action, Mr Seree said.
The panel also proposed that the EC's provincial election offices be dissolved and that the EC be given authority to order soldiers, police and local authorities to support the EC during elections, Mr Seree said.
He added the panel also suggested that the EC poll fraud investigators be given power under the Criminal Procedure Code to launch criminal investigations in poll fraud cases.
Other proposals include easing financial burdens of political parties and poll candidates during campaigns. For example, the state may help pay for the cost of printing campaign posters, Mr Seree said.
Another proposal is that the period for casting votes on election days should be between 8am-6pm, instead of 8am-3pm, he said.
The panel also proposed that the election law allow the National Council for Peace and Order to work closely with the EC to organise and regulate the election expected at the end of next year. The idea is to prevent criticism that the coup in 2014 was a failure.
Meanwhile, Thursday's Royal Gazette issued a royal command endorsing the amendment to the interim charter which allows the appointment of 30 more members to the National Legislative Assembly.
