Thailand's Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn officially
opened the National People's Assembly (NPA) in Bangkok on Sunday
afternoon, paving the way for drafting the country's new
constitution after the former one was abolished by the Sept. 19
coup.
"The NPA members should perform their duty with thoughtfulness
and justice so that constitution drafters can be selected," said
the Crown Prince in his keynote speech.
"You are now entrusted with an important task because a
constitution is a core principle of the country's administration,"
the Crown Prince was quoted by the state-run Thai News Agency as
saying.
The 1,982 NPA members comprises of 574 persons from the public
sector, 545 from the private sector, 538 from the social sector and
325 from the academic circle.
They will convene on Monday to select among themselves 200
finalists. The Council for National Security (CNS) will then choose
100 of them as the Constitution Drafting Assembly members.
Constitutional drafting will be conducted by the Constitution
Drafting Committee grouping 35 eminent persons -- 25 of whom will
be selected by the Constitution Drafting Assembly and the other
10proposed by the CNS.
The drafting of the new constitution is expected to take about
six months.
(Xinhua News Agency December 18, 2006)
