The excessive number of laws undermines their importance, resulting in disrespect for the law, cases flooding the courts and overcrowding in prisons, Pokpong Srisanit, a member of the panel revising the criminal code, said at a public seminar on the principles on prescribing punishments in legislation on Wednesday.

The new Constitution, however, has opened a way to resolve those issues. Pokpong said that Article 77 stipulates that only severe cases should be regarded as criminal offences.

Hence, the Council of State panel is reviewing legislation in the criminal code, with the view to recommending that the Cabinet prescribe administrative penalties for minor offences, such as the violation of intellectual property law or wrongdoings regarding the illegal issuance of cheques, Pokpong said.

Any change would require new legislation, he added.

Pratan Wattanawanich, another legislator, pointed out the problem of an overabundance of laws and the lack of knowledge about administrative penalties even among officials.

In addition, the principles underpinning such penalties remained debatable, he said. So, most of the time, criminal penalties came out on top, Pratan explained.

“What makes this difficult is that if we propose to change some [offences] to administrative penalties, some officials may not get it,” he said. “Even as members of the Council of State we do not cover such principles. As a result, Thailand is full of criminal penalties.”

Article 77 of the new Constitution is an important step to bring about change to this, Pratan said.

Surasak Likasitwattanakul, another legislator sitting in the panel reviewing criminal legislation, said that a certain definition would be needed for the term “severe cases” to determine which offences would be penalised or not under which law.

Currently, there were no clear standards to determine which offences were criminal, he said.

The legislator proposed that what should be taken into consideration was whether or not the act impacted public interests and society at large. This would be based on the spirit of the law, the period of the legislation and the legal process.

The NLA secretariat office has sent a letter to the selection committee to kickstart the process of naming the new commissioners. The process is expected to be completed within 90 days, he added. Of the seven commissioners to be selected, five names will come from the committee and two others from the Supreme Court meeting.

By early December, the list of the new EC commissioners should be tabled for the NLA’s endorsement within 45 days. If the NLA disagrees with any of the persons on the list, a new selection round would be held to find a replacement, Pornpetch said.

Pornpetch said the NLA has managed to deliberate and endorse the law within 60 days as stipulated under the new charter, but due to differences in views, especially in regard to the total reset of the EC, the law enactment process was prolonged for nearly three months.

This is the factor that needs to be taken into account when considering the coming election, to see whether or not it would still follow the government’s road map, he said.

Pornpetch said he could not say at this point whether the delay in the law enactment would affect the road map.

The law is the first of 10 organic laws to be promulgated that are essential for holding an election next year. Three other organic laws required for the election, but not yet enacted, involve political parties, and the origins of Senators and members of the House of Representatives.

The organic law governing the EC is controversial because of the dismissal of the current EC members. It is not known yet whether the EC members will take any further legal action to challenge the law and maintain their positions.

It is the first law of the 10 organic laws to be promulgated and it is essential for holding an election next year.

Three other organic laws required for the election, but not yet enacted, involve political parties, and the origins of Senators and members of the House of Representatives.

The organic law governing the EC is controversial because of the dismissal of the current EC members. It is unclear whether EC members will make any further petition to reverse the law and maintain their positions.

The UDD planned the event after the Supreme Court last month upheld an appeal, dismissing the criminal case against former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his deputy Suthep Thaugsuban related to the dispersal of the red-shirt protesters seven years ago, on the grounds that it was not within their jurisdiction.

The case should have been handled rather by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and the Supreme Court for Political Office Holders, the court said.

But since the NACC had dismissed this case once already in 2015, it was unclear whether it could be revived now.

The UDD is looking to lodge a petition with the agency to bring Abhisit and Suthep back to court. The red-shirts have threatened to gather one million signatures to sue the NACC for malfeasance if it did not take up the case.

The press conference on the update of the issue has been planned for Thursday at Imperial World Lat Phrao, but Colonel Piyapong Klinpan, a spokesman of National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), said it might not be allowed due to the ban on political activities. He noted the need for order given that there were several national ceremonies to be held this year, an apparent reference to the Royal cremation next month.

If the time came and the country was in order, the NCPO would consider relaxing its controls, Piyapong said.

However, if the UDD insisted its conference wasn’t political, the NCPO would still have to deploy troops and police to help provide security and keep order, the spokesman said.

Piyapong said the UDD should be “careful” if it planned any activities that would involve politics.

Srivara said CCTV footage showed the first car leaving Yingluck’s residence in Soi Yothinpattana 3 carrying a female passenger and a driver. The car headed to Min Buri district, where the woman was seen leaving one car and getting into another, which she used to travel to Sa Kaew.

The second car appeared to reach Sa Kaew after 10pm, when immigration checkpoints were already closed. However, whether she left Thailand in the car afterwards had not been confirmed, Srivara said.

He refused to confirm whether the car seen in Sa Kaew was the same one as that seen in earlier reported CCTV footage. “We can’t identify the cars yet, nor answer whether they have already been found or not,” he said.

The woman was suspected but not definitively identified as Yingluck, because she could not be seen clearly in the footage, the deputy said.

He said at least two people, the drivers of the cars, were suspected to have helped Yingluck flee given the new information.

Because the escape was made before an arrest warrant was issued against Yingluck for failing to show up at court, the suspects were not guilty of facilitating a fugitive’s escape, but rather for illegally transporting people across borders, Srivara said.

Everyone involved would be prosecuted regardless of their ranks or offices, he said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha said security authorities had followed up CCTV footage but had not determined how Yingluck could have fled.

Yingluck could only appeal the verdict regarding her government’s controversial rice-pledging scheme after it is read on September 27 if she is present at the time, Prayut said.

As Prayut and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan visited the UK at the invitation of Secretary of State for Defence Sir Michael Fallon, he denied that talks would focus on security cooperation without touching on issues related Yingluck.

The UK is among the countries where Yingluck could possibly choose to take refuge, in addition to the United Arab Emirates, where her brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, often resides.

National Security Council secretary-general General Thaweep Netniyom said further information was needed about Yingluck’s escape, although it was highly likely that she had fled via the Sa Kaew border crossing.

Thaweep said Prawit might hold a press briefing to update information about Yingluck’s escape but the date was uncertain.

“We have to find concrete evidence before presenting anything,” he added.

Abhisit’s remarks came after his former colleague Suthep Thaugsuban had revealed the possibility of the People’s Democratic Reform Foundation forming a political party with a view to supporting Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to continue in power.

Abhisit acknowledged that many people were concerned about Suthep’s stance.

However, he was not sure how Prayut would participate in politics because the general was not eligible to run in an election.

The former premier added that he was not certain whether there would be any party nominating Prayut as a PM candidate.

However, the Democrat leader called for MPs to vote to select a prime minister first, in order to show respect for the people who had voted for them to be members of the House of Representatives.

Abhisit stressed that after the general election, it would be dangerous to defy the people’s will.

It was not about legislation alone, and everyone also needed to look at the people’s demands as reflected in the national poll, he said.

It was inappropriate to make any assumption about what would happen after the election, he emphasised, adding that doing so was akin to disrespecting the people.

Abhisit also said he did not want to see an atmosphere of distrust that the organic laws were being left unfinished so as to delay the election.

“That would not be good,” he added.

Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, president of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), said on Tuesday it was too soon to talk about such an idea and clarification may in any case well be required as to what exactly a national government means.

The new Constitution had not been designed to pave the way for such a government, he said.

However, it did allow for an outsider prime minister, which would have to be decided upon by MPs, Pornpetch added, stressing that it had nothing to do with the NLA.

Whether or not the idea of a national government was being floated to test the water, the NLA president pointed out that it had come from a political party.

He declined to comment on whether this was part of a plan for future negotiations in politics.

A group of students held up a banner reading “Unfortunately some people died” as Abhisit delivered the lecture as part of activities at the “Political Science Education Fair”, held by the Faculty of Political Science at the university’s Rangsit campus.

The quote harks back to a remark made by Abhisit in an interview in 2010 following the crackdown on demonstrators during his administration that left almost 100 people dead and thousands injured.

The students, led by activist Parit Chiwarak, asked the former PM: “What do you think about the incident where a 17-year-old boy was shot dead in Soi Rangnam,” referring to Samaphan Srithep, one of the youngest victims of the crackdown.

Appearing calm, Abhisit replied: “I would like to express regret to his family, and to him. I insist that no one wanted to see such the loss happen, or happen again, ever. I myself support a fact finding process in order to help establish the truth for all related cases. This is to give justice to all that were involved, especially his family, and his soul.”

It is highly likely that the fugitive former prime minister fled Thailand via the border in the Eastern province of Sa Kaew, he added.

However, Thaweep did not spell out which channel Yingluck used or exactly how she fled from the Kingdom.

He said Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan might provide a press briefing to update information on Yingluck’s escape, but it was not yet certain when that would be.

“We have to find concrete evidence before presenting anything,” he added.

Yingluck disappeared shortly before the verdict in the case against her regarding her government’s rice-pledging scheme was due to be read on August 25.

CCTV records obtained by the authorities suggest that she escaped from Thailand in a car crossing from Sa Kaew into neighbouring Cambodia.

The verdict in her case – in which it is alleged that her negligence led to multi-billion-baht damages caused by the rice-pledging scheme – is set to be read on September 27, whether or not she is present in court.

While some political observers have suggested that Yingluck might make a move again at that time, Thaweep said the authorities had no confirmed reports to indicate that.

Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said on Tuesday that it was still unclear in which country Yingluck was hiding, but the Foreign Ministry was following all possibilities closely.

The ministry had not yet found Yingluck to be seeking asylum anywhere, he added.

Authorities must first have direct visual evidence that it was indeed her before confirming she was in any particular location, he stressed.

However, there have been no notifications of her whereabouts so far, apart from the various unreliable news reports circulating about her disappearance, the minister said.

Regarding reports that the ex-PM had fled through Sa Kaeo province to Cambodia, Don said his ministry had not “reached out” to that country, but officials of both nations were discussing the matter.