The additional three seats were reserved only for experts, which originally totalled 14. The proportion of security officers remained the same at five, however.

The bill was part of the reform effort pushed by the post-coup regime.

Chusak Limsakul, a member of the vetting committee, said on Thursday that the committee had already completed deliberations on the bill. It was expected that it would be reviewed next week before submitting to the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) on June 15 and 16 for its second and third readings, he elaborated.

Public members had been encouraged to submit their opinions via the website of the government (thaigov.go.th) from April 20 to May 20, Chusak said. The web page had been visited 3,051 times and saw opinions posted by eight people, he added.

The public opinion would be included in the report and observations of the committee submitted to the NLA.

Asked whether such a small number of people voicing opinion showed ineffective opinion-gathering, Chusak said the committee did not view it so. Those people who had not posted any comments might have already understood and agreed with the bill, he added.