Unlocking a qualification of lawmakers to make it possible for banned politicians to serve will help promote reconciliation, said Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam.
The cabinet and the junta on Tuesday resolved at a joint meeting to amend the 2014 interim charter in seven key points (see chart below).
Earlier, Mr Wissanu said amendments were needed to the interim charter if voters were to be asked in a referendum but other changes unrelated to the new constitution were also made at Tuesday's joint meeting.
The most controversial point was the change of a prohibited qualification from a person whose voting right "has been suspended" to "is not being suspended".
This means some 200 politicians — the so-called members of House No. 111 and House No. 109 — can be politically active again if they are chosen by the junta.
House No. 111 refers to the 111 executives of the Thai Rak Thai party whose voting right was suspended for five years when the Constitutional Court dissolved the party in 2007, a year after the first military coup to topple Thaksin Shinawatra, its founder.
House No. 109 refers to the 109 executives of the People's Power party, the second incarnation of Thai Rak Thai (37), Chart Thai party (43) and Matchima party (29). They were also banned for five years when their parties were dissolved by the Constitutional Court in late 2008.
The rights ban has been criticised by some academics for being applied retroactively. In the 1997 charter in effect before the 2006 coup, when the offences took place, the punishment for such offences was only dissolving the offending political parties. After the 2006 coup, the rights ban was added and applied retroactively to the "old cases", prompting criticism it was designed to sideline undesirable politicians.
It was speculated that the junta might want to use the service of marketing guru Somkid Jatusripitak, a deputy prime minister, as well as finance and commerce minister, in the Thaksin Shinawatra governments and one of House No. 111's members. Mr Somkid, who was rumoured to have fallen out with Thaksin, is currently an adviser to the junta.
Mr Wissanu did not confirm the speculation on Wednesday but said amending the clause would allow these people to take seats in nearly all constitutional organs — from cabinet ministers, reform councillors and members of the new 200-member National Reform Steering Council.
"We tried to amend the interim charter to match the charter draft. The term "not being banned" is used in the draft so we adopted it.
"Our intention is to bolster reconciliation. However, it's not easy to become a minister," he added.
"Locking the qualification results in a lack of competent people. While they may not necessarily be ministers, they may join the reform steering council or other bodies.
"Personally, I think it's unfair to ban them for life by spelling it out in the charter. Why didn't I think about it earlier? Well, I admit it's my fault.
"This is a very good sign that we'll from now move forward together for peace," said Mr Wissanu.
