The CDC has an eight-month deadline in which to complete its work on drafting the 10 organic laws required before elections are held. It has already drafted five organic laws, three of which are with the government and pending submission for royal endorsement, and the Senate selection bill is the sixth.

Under the new charter, 200 new senators will be required to come from various professions.

The CDC has decided on 20 professional groups as well as civil-based groups. These are: administration and security, law and justice, education, public health, farming, fishery and livestock, employees, environment groups, firms and SMEs, science and technology, women, handicapped and minorities, culture and entertainment, non-profit organisations, mass communications, tourism, small and medium industry, heavy industry and freelancers. This last group is open.

CDC spokesperson Norachit Sinhaseni said definitions of each group would be further fine-tuned, and there would then be cross-selections of candidates at district, provincial and national levels.

However, the CDC has not yet decided how the cross selections would be achieved, with one suggestion that it be done in a similar way to a World Cup football draw. Norachit said each group would initially be required to vote on five candidates at district level.

Afterwards they would be required to choose candidates from other groups, to get three candidates per group to contest selection at a provincial level. At the provincial selection round, only one candidate per group would be picked to be nominated at a national level, which would result in the final number of 200 senators to enter the Upper House.

Senator candidates would be barred from campaigning for votes, Norachit said. Penalties would be set for those seeking political support, with political bans of up to 10 years suggested among those penalties.

Those engaged in fraud during the selections would face a jail term of up to 10 years, or a fine of Bt20,000 to Bt200,000, Norachit said.

No date has yet been confirmed for submission of the draft to the National Legislative Assembly.