Pornpetch could not confirm when the promised election would be held, saying legislative processes could prolong the timetable.

Processes such as the deliberations of a joint law-review committee and the Constitutional Court need to be considered when deciding on the election date, he said.

The resetting of the Election Commision (EC) should not affect the time frame, he said, and the current commission members would remain in charge and continue to work until the new members took office.

The Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) had 240 days from when the Constitution was promulgated in April to complete 10 organic bills. Four of which – namely the bill on the EC, the political parties, the members of House of Representatives, and the Senate – were required before an election could be held.

Pornpetch said the CDC had told him the last two bills on the Lower and Upper Houses would be submitted to the NLA no later than early December and the NLA can hold them for another 60 days before further proceedings. There were no reasons for any delays, he said.

The bills could be proposed for royal endorsement after the NLA’s deliberation, he said.

He said it was normal that a joint law-review committee was set up as involved agencies could not agree on stipulations. Only the bill on the legal procedures against politicians had passed smoothly, but only because the courts had not been allowed by the Constitution to raise objections.

“So, we’d have to see whether the two bills on the MPs and the Senate would also need a review by the joint committee,” the NLA president said. They were difficult because opinions of both the people and political parties had to be heeded, he said.

If they failed to pass the NLA, Pornpetch said the CDC would need to redo the work. But it should not take long because the circumstance would force it to be quick.

As there is concern that this could delay the election, Pornpetch said the CDC would have to speed up the work, if that was necessary. He declined to give an exact time frame for rewriting the bills.

Asked whether reconciliation should be achieved before the election, he said it was what people wanted but it was not a requirement. The election was more about the road map, while national unity was the goal of the National Council for Peace and Order, Pornpetch said.