PRIME MINISTER Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday refused to spell out when details of the draft constitution, as revised following His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s observations, will be released.

Prayut said the public “should wait” and that the contents would be released “soon”, along with a schedule of when the King would return an endorsed charter draft.

His remarks came after a group of concerned citizens on Monday submitted a petition to the Ombudsman’s Office calling for scrutiny of the Cabinet, given that it had not published the revised draft despite it being completed. The act of alleged concealment could be deemed non-transparent and violating the code of ethics for governmental officials, the group said in its petition.

The government’s time frame on the revisions, following the King’s observations regarding the chapter on the monarchy, elaborated procedures such as amending the interim charter, setting up a special committee on amendments and returning the charter to the King – but did not say when exactly the amended charter would be publicised.

Deputy Premier Wissanu Krea-ngam, who is in charge of the government’s legal affairs, said earlier that the contents would be revealed soon but he also did not say when.

The original charter draft, written by the junta-appointed Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC), was approved by a majority vote in last August’s referendum. The King made observations on the charter draft a month later, with the government, the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) and the charter drafters amending the charter accordingly.

Prayut returned the revised charter draft to the King on February 17 for royal endorsement, a vital step for the constitution to be promulgated. The King has 90 days to decide whether to endorse the draft.

Yesterday, the prime minister said again that the junta’s “road map to democracy” remained unchanged. “But things will be unfolded once the Royal funeral and the coronation are over,” he said. “These events are all unexpected.”

The cremation ceremony of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died last October, is expected to be held in December.

Meanwhile, CDC chairman Meechai Ruchupan said yesterday that the drafting of 10 organic laws required under the new constitution should take no more than 10 and a half months to complete after the charter is enacted. However, the charter stipulates that the laws must be finished within eight months after the charter’s promulgation.

Meechai said the NLA would probably take another two months to deliberate the draft laws, but an extension might be required if there are issues that the CDC and NLA have to decide jointly, he said.

The CDC will start by sending two organic laws on the Election Commission (EC) and political parties to the NLA, waiting for the assembly’s feedback and for the EC and political parties to prepare themselves accordingly. Then the commission will proceed with the organic laws regarding MPs and senators, the chief drafter said.

The election date will be within 150 days after those four organic laws are enacted, although scrutiny of election-related graft and by-election processes could delay the election results, he said.

But other organic laws will also be forwarded for the NLA’s deliberation each month, while the assembly will elaborate on the laws regarding the EC and the parties, he said.

Although the charter draft stipulates that the legislation process must include hearing people’s opinions, Meechai said that would probably not prolong deliberations. “The hearings can be done on websites,” he said.

It would be in a form of a government-to-government deal, he added, without naming the selling country.

Prawit also reconfirmed approval of the budget to purchase the submarine by the National Legislative Assembly. It had considered the budget bill, under which the matter was placed, and approved it in last September.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha declined to comment on the submarine project, saying the Deputy Prime Minister would take care of it, while the government would only look after the annual budget and the bill.

However, he trusted that concerned agencies including the Navy had come up with the proper plans before proposing the budgets.

Prawit, in late January, said the NLA had approved the budget for one submarine. The Navy proposed three of them, and the prospective seller of the vessels was China.

According to the Navy, three Chinese-built submarines would cost around Bt36 billion. The first submarine would cost around Bt13.5 billion under fiscal budget 2017. The vessels would be S26T diesel-electric submarines, which are modified export versions of the Yuan-class (Type 041).

“The Thai Navy requires submarines to maintain a military balance in the region because other neighbouring countries already have them. It will help protect our sovereignty, as well as our abundant marine resources, notably in the Andaman Sea,” Prawit had said in January.

Local security experts, however, are split on whether the Navy needs a small fleet of submarines as the maritime threats are not clear. Some analysts said buying surface vessels would be a better defence strategy.

The latest haul of some 422 pieces of elephant tusks highlights the extensive international links boasted by wildlife gangs.

Packages stuffed with ivory, together weighing 330 kilogrammes, were discovered on two Ethiopian Airline flights from Addis Ababa, the customs department said in a statement, adding that the parcels had originated in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe.

A Gambian man, who came to collect the packages on Sunday, was arrested and charged with smuggling banned wildlife products the statement added.

The international trade in ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since the late 1980s after a precipitous decline in the population of African elephants.

But that has not stopped criminal gangs seeking to exploit the continued demand for the material in Asia.

Tusks and other body parts of elephants are prized for decoration as talismans and for use in traditional medicine across parts of Asia — despite a lack of any peer reviewed proof it works — with China being a major market for such products.

Thailand’s junta, which seized power in 2014, have vowed to crack down on the trade.

In 2015 Thailand incinerated more than two tonnes of confiscated ivory, the first time the kingdom has taken steps to destroy part of its stockpile.

A police team in a pick-up truck was chasing a suspicious Nissan sedan that failed to comply to a drug search when they fired warning shots skywards for the sedan driver to pull over at Tambon Juap of Jor I Rong district.

However, patrolling rangers in the area mistook the police for insurgents and opened fire on them.

Volunteer Aman Lateh died from his injuries while Pol Sergeant Major Chaowalit Chupheuk suffered a bullet wound to his chest and Pol Corporal Watchara Saengsurin suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder. The driver of the sedan escaped.

Narathiwat Special Task Force deputy chief Colomel Paisal Noosang said officers would aid the families of the injured and the deceased fully.

To prevent a recurrence of the incident, agencies will now be required to notify officers on the ground of operations or ongoing pursuits, he said.

Firefighters using 10 fire engines spent almost an hour putting out the blaze, which reportedly started in one of the houses around 4am.

Two residents were slightly injured as they tried to escape the fire by jumping from second floor, while a firefighter was hit by a hose, sustaining minor injuries.

Police are investigating the cause of fire, which cost an estimated Bt3 million in damage.