The suggestion came as a media outlet claimed that former National Legislative Assembly President Meechai Ruchuphan may be named chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee.
Wissanu's remark came after Pheu Thai executive and former education minister Chaturon Chaisaeng suggested that the 20-month road map be reduced to 11 months.
Wissanu said it was better to give the public a longer time frame and then negotiate to shorten it. The six months allotted to the new CDC to draft a new charter would have to be discussed with CDC members if the time frame is to be shortened, he said. At the same time, passing organic laws - a task for the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), and allotted six months, would have to be discussed with the NLA, to see if it was possible to shorten that time frame also.
The Election Commission (EC) was given four months to prepare for a referendum on the draft charter. The only set time frame, which is stipulated in the 2014 interim constitution, was the three months allotted to a political campaign and general election, Wissanu said, although another extra month was needed to submit organic laws to His Majesty the King for endorsement.
Wissanu criticised Chaturon's alternative time frame, saying the proposal to shorten the electoral campaign period from three to two months may be acceptable to established political parties like Pheu Thai and the Democrats, but new and smaller parties would definitely be at a disadvantage, as they have to register, attract enough members as required by law and print campaign posters. He warned that a shortened electoral period may mean that both the Democrat and Pheu Thai parties would have to register their parties again from scratch in order to be fair to other new parties and this could be bizarre. He asked that the big parties be fair to newcomers, who can't even register the formation of political parties now due to the ban imposed by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).
The bottom line, stressed Wissanu, was that any shortened road map must be realistic and any reduction should be done gradually. "It's like selling goods by setting a price of goods at Bt200 and see if the consumer will not buy and walk away or will try to haggle it down to Bt160," he said.
In a related development, Wissanu urged the media not to speculate about the possible appointment of Meechai as CDC chairman. The deputy premier said the media should ask Meechai himself, although Wissanu said Meechai was currently attending a legal conference abroad and he didn't know when he would return to the Kingdom.
Wissanu said it had to be ascertained first if anyone had invited Meechai to take the post or not. He said he was not yet aware of that.