The office’s deputy director Chayapon Pongseeda said that while the Supreme Sangha Council (SSC) could nominate a candidate, it had no power to appoint anybody to that post. “The nominee’s name will be submitted to His Majesty and he can decide whether to approve the nomination,” he said.

He was speaking after a network working for the protection of Buddhism yesterday demanded that a legal amendment be created to strip the SSC of the right to nominate only one senior monk for the post of Supreme Patriarch.

“We should return to the old tradition, in which several names were submitted for His Majesty to choose,” the network’s representative Phireudee Pawananan said.

The group made this demand via petitions submitted to the National Legislative Assembly and the National Reform Steering Assembly.

The SSC recently resolved to nominate Somdej Phra Maha Ratchamangalacharn, who is also known as Somdej Chuang, as the new monastic head. However, since this nomination has drawn strong opposition, it has not been forwarded for royal endorsement yet.