The Constitutional Court's ruling on the new charter will let an outsider stay as the next prime minister for as long as a decade, a former justice minister said on Thursday.
Chaikasem Nitisiri, who is also a former permanent secretary for justice, was commenting on a ruling that lets half, instead of two-thirds, of parliamentarians vote for the nomination of a premier candidate outside political parties' lists.
Chaikasem Nitisiri
"It is undeniable that the chance is high for a prime minister to come from outside political parties' lists," he said.
As senators would remain in office for five years, the court's ruling would allow an outsider to be the prime minister for eight years, or two terms of House representatives, or as long as 10 years if the period leading to the next general election was included, said Mr Chaikasem who was the justice minister in 2013-14 during the tenure of the Yingluck Shinawatra government.
He doubted that people who voted in the charter referendum in August shared the same stance with the Constitutional Court.
Mr Chaikasem predicted the next premier would be an outsider rather than a candidate of a political party. The constitution was designed to prevent any political party from having a decisive portion of House votes, he said.
Two big parties would not be able to join hands to form the next government and political parties with connections to the military as well as small and medium-sized parties could jointly form the government with support from senators, Mr Chaikasem said.
"But the work of the government will not go smoothly because legislation and no-confidence debates depend only on the votes of House members, not those of senators whom the NCPO will select," he said, referring to the National Council for Peace and Order which staged the coup d'etat on May 22, 2014.