Critics on Friday lashed out at Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam over his remark that the public did not need to know the details of the Senate selection process.
Mr Wissanu was quoted as saying the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) order appointing a 10-member Senate-selection panel was not a piece of law and had not needed to be published in the Royal Gazette following public calls for the regime to disclose the names of the panellists.
According to the deputy prime minister, the names of the selection committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon were kept secret to prevent lobbying.
However, Mr Wissanu revealed the names on Wednesday, which triggered widespread criticism. The committee members are all allied to the NCPO with six of them also appointed as senators themselves.
Phichai Ratnatilaka Na Bhuket, a political science lecturer at the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida), said Mr Wissanu's argument was weak as other similar NCPO orders had been published in the Royal Gazette in the past.
He said the NCPO's order concerning the appointment of the selection panel was in line with the charter and should be considered a law.
He said that the 250-member Senate will face a no-confidence crisis because its origin was questionable.
"Those who believe in and respect good governance and want to protect their dignity should resign," he said.
Activist Srisuwan Janya said yesterday that Mr Wissanu had "misunderstood" Section 269 of the charter, which requires the NCPO to appoint a politically neutral committee to select the senators and noted that when the names were withheld, the public was unable to verify that this had happened.
He also said he would ask the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to investigate the cabinet's secretariat office for negligence of duty over the absence of the order.
If the NACC is slow to act, he will "seek the Administrative Court's intervention", he added.
Mr Srisuwan also said that the selection committee members being allied with the NCPO amounted to a conflict of interest and a breach of ethics.
The senators played a part in choosing the prime minister when one of the candidates was also head of the NCPO, claimed Mr Srisuwan.
The panel was originally made up of 10 members, but former National Legislative Assembly president, Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, later quit. Mr Pornpetch is now the Senate speaker.
