Thai king seeks changes to draft charter
Thailand's new king has ordered sections of the country's draft constitution to be rewritten, the junta chief said yesterday, a rare public intervention by the monarch in the kingdom's politics.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn, 64, ascended the throne after the October death of his much loved father King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a unifying figure whose reign spanned seven politically turbulent decades.
Yesterday, junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha said the king had declined to sign off on the new charter because of clauses concerning royal powers.
The document was drafted by the junta after its 2014 power grab and approved in a controversial referendum last year in which independent campaigning was banned.
"There are three or four points that need to be amended concerning his authority (as king)," Prayut said, without elaborating on which specific clauses would be altered.
The revision process would take several months, he added.
It is an unusually assertive move by the palace -- an institution long portrayed as staunchly "above politics" despite several key interventions by Bhumibol during times of political crisis.
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