The government has proposed changes to the constitution draft in some 50 key points while the National Reform Council (NRC) proposed eight.
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said on Monday after a special meeting that the cabinet agreed on some 100 changes, half of which would affect the essence of the charter draft.
"We have a problem with putting provisions to set up as many as 30 organisations in the charter. We think they should be detailed in organic laws [to be enacted later].
"By putting them in the charter, these organisations will become 'constitutional organs' and a budget burden. Since they have time limits, their places should be in organic laws," Mr Wissanu said.
"The requirement that permanent secretaries become the acting cabinet after the House is dissolved should be scrapped or improved," he said. "It will do more harm than good."
"The stipulation that a politician or leader in the public sector, which refers to permanent secretaries, directors general and civil servants, must not 'violate traditions, religions and morality code and must also speak politely and refrain from controversial behaviours' is baffling.
"What does it mean? This could bring several lawsuits. They belong to an ethic code, not a constitution," Mr Wissanu said.
Like the NRC, the cabinet proposed that Sections 181 and 182, which allow the PM to enact a law without parliamentary endorsement, be scrapped.
It also thinks the many assemblies and the steering council should be revised while the open-list election method and the entire Reforms chapter should be removed entirely because they go too deep into detail and are hard to comprehend.
Of note, the cabinet did not propose any change to the outsider prime minister clause. It also left untouched the provisions on the sources of senators and MPs.
"If they are changed, several other sections will have to be revised as well because they are linked," Mr Wissanu said.
The NRC earlier proposed eight aspects to the draft.
- The prime minister must be an MP.
- 154 of 200 senators should be elected.
- The House should comprise 400 constituency MPs and 100 party-list MPs.
- Sections 181 and 182, which allow the PM to enact a law without parliamentary endorsement, must be scrapped.
- The provision on the Reform Steering Council should be put in an organic law instead. Its members, as well as those of the reconciliation committee, should be appointed by the cabinet.
- The proposed Election Organisation Committee should be scrapped and let the Election Commission allowed to do the job like before.
- Political groups and the open-list system should be removed.
- The word "citizens" should be replaced with "people" throughout.
