Wissanu attended the National Legislative Assembly convention on the proposed referendum bill at Parliament yesterday before having lunch with CDC chief Meechai Ruchupan.

The deputy PM declined to disclose whether they had discussed the National Council for Peace and Order’s contentious proposals including having appointed senators, joking that he should not be interviewed as Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had said he did not want Cabinet members to talk about politics.

Asked whether the NCPO’s proposals could be deemed an attempt by the junta to cling to power, Wissanu said he did not know.

But he said that no matter how the constitution draft was written, those who were biased would always be biased, meaning some people would always regard the constitution as a way for the current military-led regime to retain power.

As such, Wissanu said the draft was aimed more at those who were impartial to its content.

Asked whether Meechai had expressed any frustration towards the NCPO’s proposals, the deputy PM replied that the CDC chief did not say anything about that, adding: “He was being very patient.”

The NCPO said that its charter-draft recommendations, signed by its secretary-general General Theerachai Nakavanich, were the result of the crisis facing the country before the May 2014 coup.

The country’s four “rivers” of power are concerned the country might return to such a state again. Thus they agreed that special rules should be stipulated in the constitution’s provisional clauses and applied during the five-year transitional period following the next general election.

The recommendations include a 250-member non-elected Senate, including six seats reserved for the heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Joint Armed Forces and police as well as the Defence Ministry permanent secretary. The NCPO also wants the government’s top jobs not limited to members of House of Representative, those backed by political parties or people named on the three-candidate lists.

Wissanu said the CDC did not have to implement the junta’s recommendations and everyone, including NCPO members, would go to a polling station to vote for or against the charter in the referendum.

He said there were two sides of the coin for the junta’s controversial proposal to allow senators to vote in a non-confidence motion against the government.

If the government had good governance but was attacked, the Senate could help rescue it. On the other hand, if a Parliament-majority government was corrupt and went against the public will, the Senate could help deter such a government.

He denied that members of a selected Senate would be the NCPO’s puppets as it would depend on who was chosen to sit in the upper house. Meechai said he did not discuss anything regarding the charter draft with Wissanu, saying they just had lunch.

The CDC will decide on whether to accept the NCPO’s proposals on Monday. In the meantime, they want to hear public feedback on them, Meechai said.