He said the Election Commission (EC) does not have the authority to issue regulations against offenders for wrongdoings such as tearing up ballot papers or blocking elections, point out that only the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) could write a decree on a referendum or the PM could resort to Article 44.

He explained that the 2009 charter organic law could not be used to hold a referendum on the draft charter.

However, Wissanu said it was not likely that people would be banned from campaigning against the charter.

“We may have a provision stating that those who violate the EC would face punishment,” he said.

The EC will also be meeting Wissanu to discuss the ambiguity about majority votes in the referendum.

EC member Somchai Srisuthisyakorn said the commission was scheduled to meet Wissanu, the Council of State and related agencies next week at the request of the NLA after it rejected EC’s proposals on regulations for the plebiscite.

He said the EC and other concerned agencies would decide whether or not to seek a Constitutional Court ruling on the referendum vote criteria — if it is the majority votes of eligible voters or the majority of votes cast.

He said there were actually four options: to ask the interim charter writers to clarify the point; to have the government seek a Constitutional Court ruling; to get the NLA to clarify the ambiguity; have the government do nothing, which may give rise to negative criticism for its inability to clarify the law.

Somchai said critics had pointed out that the draft charter gave too much power to independent agencies, but added that this was not true with the EC because its power had been greatly reduced. For instance, under the new charter, the EC will no longer be able to issue red cards against election candidates.

He said he will meet the EC’s legal team today to seek recommendations about the draft charter and will call a meeting with the rest of the commissioners on Tuesday to endorse revised recommendations and forward them to the Constitution Drafting Commission.