Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) chairman Bowornsak Uwanno defended the CDC's decision that the prime minister will no longer be required to be an MP under a charter change proposal.
Mr Bowornsak said on Friday that removing such a requirement from the new constitution would prevent future calls for "special measures outside the constitution" to end any political deadlock.
He cited the controversial example of Section 7 of the abolished 2007 charter. Section 7 is an open-ended measure to deal with problems not covered by any other provisions in the charter.
During the political crisis, debate raged about whether His Majesty the King should intervene and whether Section 7 should be invoked to allow the appointment of an interim government. The crisis continued until the military staged the May 22 coup, Mr Bowornsak said, adding that the requirement for the prime minister to be a member of the House of Representatives shut the door on any chance of solving the crisis.
He said the CDC has decided to remove such a requirement from the new constitution to prevent anyone from calling for "an approach outside the constitution" to end a political deadlock.
Mr Bowornsak said that the coup happened partly because the 2007 charter barred a non-MP from becoming prime minister.
He noted that the constitutions of several countries do not stipulate that a prime minister must be an MP.
The CDC chairman insisted that the committee has no ulterior motive behind its decision to remove such a requirement, stressing that lessons learned from past political problems must be taken into account.
Gen Lertrat Rattanawanich, a CDC spokesman, said they concluded yesterday that the number of Election Commission (EC) members would remain at five, and members would have a six-year term in office, limited to one term in the new charter.
The EC would only be able to issue yellow cards, and would have to endorse at least 85% of winning candidates within 30 days of an election, Gen Lertrat said.