Thailand's 100-member Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) on
Monday elected Noranit Setabutr as its chairman, media in Bangkok
reported.
Noranit, 65, was used to be secretary-general of the King
Prachatipok Institute, which has studied on how Thailand's
constitution should be drafted. He was also former rector of the
prestigious Thammasat University.
The election was made as the CDA convened Monday for the first
time to start the process leading to a new constitution.
Noranit was among the three candidates for the post, including
retired Supreme Court chief judge and former election commissioner
Sawat Chotipanich, who withdrew from the contest before the Monday
meeting started, news network The Nation reported.
Earlier media reports cited sources as saying that before the
process formally starts to pick the chairman, informal talks have
already settled the choice on Noranit.
Noranit seemed to enjoy the edge of being able to compromise
with other constitution drafters over the other candidates, the
reports said.
The 100 CDA members had been picked earlier this month by the
Council for National Security (CNS) made of military coup leaders,
from the 200 nominees selected by the 1,982-strong National
People's Assembly (NPA) from their ranks.
The CDA will then select 25 people, and the CNS will pick 10
more, from inside or outside the CDA, to form a core panel to write
the new charter.
The constitution writing process is expected to be completed in
six months, pending a new general election hopefully to be held in
October.
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2007)
