The EC, he said in a written answer for the press, would have the authority merely to organise an election for the NCPO.

“No one, including the EC, would be able to prolong anyone’s power,” the PM insisted.

The resetting of the EC’s executive structure has become controversial as the new charter, and hence the organic law concerning the EC, require the agency’s members to have higher-level qualifications, which would initially mean some of its present members having to vacate their posts if the law came into effect.

The National Legislative Assembly’s (NLA) law-vetting committee, which has been considering the resetting of the entire EC after the organic bill passed its first reading, is scrutinising the clauses before the legislation enters the second and third readings.

Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, one of the more vocal EC members, said the agency’s president had informed the EC about the NLA vetting panel’s resolution on the matter.

The EC will wait to see how the NLA votes on this on Friday, he said, adding that if the commission considered that the endorsed bill violated the Constitution, it could propose that the Constitutional Court interpret and rule on it.

The EC would instruct its legal team to study the content of the bill to see which points it would protest, he explained.

He said it was unreasonable to say that a complete resetting of the EC’s membership was necessary to prevent having a mix of old-face EC members and newcomers, which would supposedly lead to work conflict due to different working styles as claimed by Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, who is also a noted legal expert.

Having such a mix of old and new committee members is commonplace at independent agencies, Somchai pointed out.