“I come here only as a brother to you. I don’t come here for political purposes,” Prayut said to local residents. “I just want to meet you, who are like family me to me, as well as all of my deputies and ministers.”

The one-day trip to the Northern province was Prayut’s first field visit in 2018. Last year, he made several visits to local areas, where approvals for multi-billion-baht development projects were made during mobile Cabinet meetings.

Prayut has insisted that it is a method to keep in touch with people and local authorities. However, critics said that Prayut could be using the visits to gain the upper hand in politics while the ruling junta is still imposing a ban on other political parties.

In Mae Hong Son, Prayut witnessed a ceremony granting land plots to 120 villagers before visiting development projects around the Pai river basin under the royal initiatives of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Prayut also visited a community operating under the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy and then went to a Pracharat-themed market, where he enjoyed dancing with folk dancers.

The committee is also considering whether to change the process from a cross-selection between groups to a selection from within groups.

The committee viewed that the change would not contradict the charter, as it does not specifically address that the selection must be a cross-selection.

Chief charter drafter Meechai Ruchupan said changes to the selection process for senators would prompt claims of conspiracy and fraud, thus contradicting the charter.

Srisuwn said this would be a way to prove or disprove Prawit’s claims that the expensive watches he has been wearing belong to these friends.

On Tuesday, General Prawit pledged to resign if he was found guilty, but insisted that the luxury watches he has worn on various occasions were borrowed from his friends and had already been returned to them.

However, Srisuwan said all of these friends must be called on to prove Prawit’s claims. If they are the true owners, they should be able to wear the watches perfectly.

Srisuwan said Prawit’s latest claim is mere nonsense. Some of the watches, he said, are limited editions, meaning they are made to order and have numbers showing who ordered them.

The scandal arose after Prawit was seen wearing a very expensive Richard Mille watch during a photo session with the new Cabinet

Facebook page CSI LA has reviewed media photos of Prawit and, as of Wednesday, it was estimated that he has worn 24 luxury watches. The total price, based on market value, stands at more than Bt30 million – far higher than Prawit’s estimated income during his past three years in office.

The 84-year-old scholar faced the charge after questioning the historical accuracy of the story of King Naresuan’s victorious elephant battle more than four centuries ago.

After investigations lasting more than three years, military prosecutors decided to drop the lawsuit because of insufficient evidence, according to a message on Sulak’s Facebook page and his lawyer.

Another charge against Sulak for allegedly breaking the Computer Crime Act in connection with the same incident was also dropped.

During an academic seminar on October 5, 2014, the scholar questioned the historical accuracy of conventional depictions of the elephant battle.

The duel, in which the Siamese King Naresuan is said have been victorious over Burmese Crown Prince Mingyi Swa more than 400 years ago, is often regarded in mainstream Thai historical accounts as a momentous victory that freed Ayutthaya from Burmese rule.

The lese majeste law, according to Article 112 of the Penal Code, reads: “Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent shall be punished with imprisonment of three to 15 years.”

Party members announced the move at a press conference earlier Wednesday.

They slammed the use of the Article 44 of the 2014 interim charter to reschedule a timetable for parties to begin preparing for the next election.

They said use of the article contravened criteria set out in the charter and was thus unconstitutional.

They also criticised a junta order requiring party members to confirm their membership, saying it was an infringement of both the parties’ and members’ rights.

It was equivalent to nullifying all memberships, which affected the rights and freedoms of individuals, the party argued.

“They have called for the revocation of some announcements and laws that might be in favour of any particular side,” Prayut said at his weekly press briefing.

“We have to see who is advantaged and disadvantaged by each of the laws,” he added.

The PM was speaking a day after civil-society groups launched a campaign to collect at least 10,000 signatures to file a petition for a bill to revoke 35 of the National Council for Peace and Order’s (NCPO) laws, some of which were issued by the absolute Article 44 power granted to the head of the NCPO, which is Prayut.

The groups, led by the Internet Law Reform Dialogue (iLaw), said they aimed to submit the petition to the post-election Lower House as they “have no faith” in the junta-appointed parliamentary system.

The civil-society groups’ move came shortly after the junta government said recently that laws enacted under the NCPO’s special sweeping power would eventually come to an end once the NCPO was defunct after the general election.

Prayut earlier promised that a national poll would be held in November this year, but political parties are still frozen by NCPO order 3/2015 that prohibits a political gathering of five or more people.

Last month’s NCPO order 53/2017, which amends the Political Party Act, is also much opposed by parties for its requirements deemed to require the resetting of their memberships, which they argue would cut their registered supporter base.

Yingcheep Atchanont, iLaw project manager, said on Tuesday that he had little hope that the NCPO would revoke its laws while it was still in power.

“They always cite so-called irregular situations when exercising such absolute power,” he said. “They would like to convey the need to get such situations under control.”

Yingcheep added that NCPO order 3/2015, along with 13/2016 – which grants policing power to military officers to perform the arbitrary detention of civilians – presented the greatest concern to civil-society groups.

“‘Political gathering’ has a broad range of meanings. By prohibiting it so, it also put fear into the civil-society movement,” he explained. “This threatens us when we wish to voice [concerns] to the authorities.”

The Pheu Thai Party’s ACM Sukumpol Suwanatat had signed an order in 2012 to dismiss Abhisit from the Army, but Bundit – citing the court’s ruling – said the order was not lawful.

The court also revoked the order, he added.

Bundit said Abhisit was not serving in the Army or leaving his duty, as he had not been a serving officer since leaving the Army 23 years ago.

The order, with its retroactive effect, was therefore unlawful and deemed to be a violation of Abhisit’s rights, the lawyer stressed, adding that the former prime minister had the right to fight the matter in the courts to protect his rights.

Bundit also pointed out that Abhisit could use the Supreme Court’s ruling to lodge a complaint against Sukumpol with the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

The Democrat will hold a press conference on the matter tomorrow.

The report circulated after Somchai Kunpluem, an influential figure in Chon Buri province and whose son is head of the party, was discharged from prison prematurely.

Some critics have speculated that the early release was in exchange for the support of Somchai – often known as ‘Kamnan Poh’ – to back Prayut as the next PM following a general election. The prime minister said that this was not true, and that were in any case clear criteria as to whether part of a sentence could be suspended.

There was no way anyone would exploit that in a political negotiation, he added.

They were “like family”, Prayut said yesterday, adding that the ex-ministers had high credentials. More importantly, they had worked in the government so they understood the problems and the administration’s public-relations plans, he explained.

The PM said everyone was his family but stressed that this was about work, and not any special interest.

No one gets any benefit to be one of his ministers, he stressed.

FACED WITH mounting pressure from critics, Deputy Premier and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan yesterday offered to resign if the anti-graft agency finds that he had committed any wrongdoing regarding the many luxury watches he has worn over recent years.

However, political observers have pointed out that the president of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) is Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit, who served briefly as Prawit’s secretary shortly after the junta came to power.

“Let the NACC look into the matter. If I am found to have done anything wrong, I will resign,” Prawit said.

He added that he did not think the NACC could be interfered with. “The NACC has their own procedures of implementation. We need to wait for them to complete their work. I already submitted my explanation to the NACC,” Prawit said.

He said that all of the watches that he had been spotted wearing all belonged to his friends. “I borrowed them from my friends and have already returned them all.” But he declined to be specific about how many wristwatches he had actually worn.

When asked if the matter was bothering him, the deputy prime minister, who is in charge of security affairs, responded: “I have no paranoia. There’s no problem with my mind.”

Critics, including supporters of the junta, have called on Prawit to step down or take a leave of absence as more details about luxury watches he has worn are appearing in social media.

Prawit is said to have worn more than 20 expensive watches since the junta came to power in May 2014, many of them valued at millions of baht.

Whistle-blower Srisuwan Janya, secretary-general of the Association for the Protection of the Thai Constitution, yesterday said Prawit did not have to wait until the NACC decides whether he committed any wrongdoing.

“General Prawit knows best about this matter. He can resign now, without having to wait for an NACC decision,” Srisuwan said.

“The public has made their decision: there’s something fishy about this issue. If he remains in office, he will continue to undermine the image of the government,” he said.

The whistle-blower said he was not convinced that Prawit had borrowed all the luxury watches from wealthy friends. “And I don’t think the NACC will believe him either,” he added.

Earlier, academics called on the NACC president to step aside in the investigation of his former boss, saying they had little faith that the anti-graft agency would seriously investigate Prawit given that its members were appointed by the junta.

Key government figures and Prawit’s allies in the junta yesterday declined to comment as to whether he should do anything to take responsibility over the matter.

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha refused to make clear what actions would be taken against Prawit following the luxury watch controversy.

“Investigative mechanisms will do their jobs. Don’t just use discourse,” Prayut said. “He [Prawit] should answer this by himself, so don’t ask me.”

Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda yesterday declined to comment on the growing calls for Prawit to step down to take responsibility.

Anupong, who was Prawit’s successor as the Army commander-in-chief, simply sighed and shook his head, before walking away from reporters at Government House.

Prayut also said yesterday Prawit’s case should not be used for political advantage. He was responding to Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva’s call for Prawit to step down in order not to remain the government’s “weakest link”.

Anti-corruption activist Veera Somkwamkid warned yesterday that the wristwatch scandal was wearing down the public’s tolerance towards the ruling junta. He said the junta figures were not exempted from the law and they needed to report their assets with the NACC, as required by the law.