Thailand's 100-member Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) on Monday elected Noranit Setabutr as its chairman, media in Bangkok reported.

Noranit, 65, was used to be secretary-general of the King Prachatipok Institute, which has studied on how Thailand's constitution should be drafted. He was also former rector of the prestigious Thammasat University.

The election was made as the CDA convened Monday for the first time to start the process leading to a new constitution.

Noranit was among the three candidates for the post, including retired Supreme Court chief judge and former election commissioner Sawat Chotipanich, who withdrew from the contest before the Monday meeting started, news network The Nation reported.

Earlier media reports cited sources as saying that before the process formally starts to pick the chairman, informal talks have already settled the choice on Noranit.

Noranit seemed to enjoy the edge of being able to compromise with other constitution drafters over the other candidates, the reports said.

The 100 CDA members had been picked earlier this month by the Council for National Security (CNS) made of military coup leaders, from the 200 nominees selected by the 1,982-strong National People's Assembly (NPA) from their ranks.

The CDA will then select 25 people, and the CNS will pick 10 more, from inside or outside the CDA, to form a core panel to write the new charter.

The constitution writing process is expected to be completed in six months, pending a new general election hopefully to be held in October.

(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2007)