Thais vote in favor of junta-backed charter
Print Edition
PRELIMINARY results of a referendum yesterday showed Thailand has voted to accept a new constitution that would pave the way for an election next year but require future elected governments to rule on the military’s terms.
Results so far show the military government led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has passed its first major popularity test since seizing power in a 2014 coup.
With 94 percent of the vote counted, early results from the Election Commission showed 61.4 percent of the country had voted for the charter, while 37.9 percent rejected it. Full results are due on Wednesday.
“The gap is wide enough not to change the result,” Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, chairman of the commission, told reporters in Bangkok after 90 percent of the vote count had been completed.
The junta, formally known as the National Council for Peace and Order, banned debate about the constitution and campaigning ahead of the vote. The authorities have detained and charged dozens of people who have spoken against it, including politicians and student activists. The government says the constitution is designed to heal more than a decade of divisive politics in Thailand that has dented growth and left scores dead in civil unrest. But critics, among them major political parties, say it aims to enshrine the military’s political role for years to come.
Around 200,000 police were deployed for the referendum. Voting went smoothly, the commission chief said. Another official said there were 21 cases of voters tearing ballot papers, some as a deliberate protest and others accidental.
The vote comes amidst concern about the health of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88.
Critics also say the charter is the military’s attempt to complete its failure to banish former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his brand of populism from Thai politics after the coup that removed him in 2006.
Thaksin lives in self-imposed exile but retains a strong influence, particularly with his rural support base in the north. His sister Yingluck swept to power with an electoral landslide in 2011, and her government was ousted by Prayuth in the 2014 coup.
Yingluck, who was banned from politics for five years in January 2015 after a military-appointed legislature found her guilty of mismanaging a rice scheme, also voted yesterday.
“I’m happy that I could still exercise my rights as a (Thai) person,” Yingluck told reporters after she voted.
Under the constitution, which would be Thailand’s 20th since the military abolished an absolute monarchy in 1932, a Senate with seats reserved for military commanders would check the powers of elected lawmakers. The northeast, Thaksin’s stronghold, bucked the trend and voted against the draft.
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