“He [the prime minister] can be whoever. I think there are several prominent figures in Thailand who are better than me. But if you can’t find any good persons, then you turn to me,” said PM Prayut at the weekly press briefing.

The possibility of Prayut continuing as PM after the general election has not been ruled out, although he has remained mum on the issue, declining to comment on several occasions.

The additional question, which passed the referendum last week, paved the way for a non-elected prime minister, outside the parties’ prepared PM nomination list, to be selected in the first joint parliamentary meeting. This has prompting speculation that Prayut will be one of the candidates.

The Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) is currently working to decide the extent to which the charter should be amended, while Prayut has tried to play down the issue.

“Won’t that violate what the charter [draft] says?” he asked rhetorically.

He reiterated that the draft stipulates at least two steps are to be followed. First, the MPs nominate PM candidates from the parties’ prepared lists, and select one of them as PM. If there is no resolution, the Senate may then be allowed to jointly invalidate the lists, paving the way for an MP, including anyone outside the lists, to be selected.

“I don’t know if it could be amended like that. Don’t ask me, you’d better ask the legislators,” Prayut said.

Prayut yesterday distanced himself from the proposal made by the former charter drafter Paiboon Nititawan, to create the People’s Reform Party which will be formed to back “the most suitable person” to take a premier post.

“I think he [Paiboon] has good intentions, but I’m not involved,” he said.

Prayut repeated that it was too early to anticipate the political outcome of the referendum decision.

He said, “This is not my time. Today I’m a junta leader. I’m a PM who came from ‘that’ process and you’re asking me about general politics. Can those apply to me?”

Meanwhile, National Legislative Assembly (NLA) president Surachai Liengboonlertchai said yesterday that the assembly would help guide the CDC to amend the charter draft in such a way that only provisional chapters are adjusted.

He said the NLA would meet today to discuss issues involved in amending the charter draft.

“We have to know what are the objectives of the question so that we can continue reforming the country,” he said. “We might come across some technical issues so we have to come up with contingency plans as alternatives. We have to prepare all this information for the CDC’s consideration.”