Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said he will on Tuesday outline to the cabinet a 6-4-6-4 road map to be followed after the National Reform Council rejected the draft constitution on Sunday.
By this timeline, a general election will be held in May 2017, provided the new charter draft is endorsed in a national referendum, although Mr Wissanu did not give specifics.
Mr Wissanu said starting in October the 6-4-6-4 guideline would be followed.
First there would be a six-month period when a new charter drafting panel would do its work, followed by four months of preparing for a public referendum.
If the new draft constitution is approved by the referendum, another six months would be required to write supplementary, or organic, laws, and the final four months would be the lead-up to a general election.
Mr Wissanu said the interim constitution does not state what to do next if the new draft charter is again rejected. If this happens, then measures would have to be taken to cope with the development, he added.
The deputy prime minister for legal affairs said it was possible one of the past constitutions could be dusted off and promulgated anew, but that was a matter for the new charter drafting committee to decide.
Asked whether the controversial national strategic committee for reforms and reconciliation would again be included in the new charter, Mr Wissanu said the drafting panel would decide what provisions would be included to cope with problems if the so-called "crisis panel" provision was discarded.
He said the crisis panel had been intended to replace Section 44 of the interim constitution, which would be void once a new charter is in place.
Mr Wissanu declined to say what led to the rejection of the draft charter on Sunday.
