Analysts say the constitution will allow the military to maintain power in future without the need to stage coups, of which Thailand has seen 12 since 1932.
"The draft constitution aims to entrench the power of the military and traditional elite, and if it passes the referendum Thailand will move toward semi-authoritarianism guided by the military," according to the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, a Singapore-based research organization.
"With the army's power embedded in the constitution, backed by the Constitutional Court's 'state of exception' powers, the traditional elites would in effect have designed new mechanisms to seize power without resorting to a military coup."