However, he promised to announce the next steps to be taken in a nationwide TV broadcast once he has received the official referendum result from the EC expected on Wednesday. Thailand has been rocked by more than a decade of political turmoil that has stunted growth, two military takeovers and several rounds of often deadly street protests.
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The story Power to the generals after Thailand votes for military-backed constitution first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.
But the family is loathed by an arch-royalist Bangkok elite which is backed by the military, and by southern voters who accuse the Shinawatras of corruption and populism.
The acting head of the Peau Thai Party, which carried Yingluck to power, said Thais may have voted pragmatically for the charter as the fastest route to an election. “What will we do next?” The military junta, which rebranded itself the National Council for Peace and Order and made its leader, Prayuth Chan-ocha, the prime minister, set about creating a new constitution, written by a junta-created committee.
Campaigning against the draft in the run-up to the referendum was banned and dozens of people were detained.
The results show Thailand remains divided, said Sunai at Human Rights Watch. Early results show more than 60 percent support the measure.
The voter turnout in the referendum was not impressive – about 55%.
“The goal is to keep the political party system fragmented to bring about a coalition government that will not be dominated by a single party”, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “It’s good to have the military baby-sitting the government for the next five years”. “They will feel confident from this vote about rolling out their plans for the transitional period”.
As the count got underway, it was soon apparent that Thais had voted Yes.
The “yes” vote would be positive for the economy and investment in the second half of 2016, Bank of Thailand Governor Veerathai Santiphrabhob said on Monday. The junta leader has come under criticism from rights groups and some foreign governments for a crackdown on freedom of speech and assembly that was stepped up ahead of the vote. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whose righteous rule has anchored the kingdom since 1946, is 88 and ailing. The military has for decades invoked its duty as defender of the deeply revered monarch to justify its interventions in politics.
Analysts have said that a “yes” vote on the constitution would be a setback for democracy in Thailand.
A majority of voters approved the junta-backed Constitution in Sunday’s referendum, following which the European Union and the USA denounced the restrictions on free speech imposed by the junta in the run-up to the vote in which more than 100 opponents were detained, Efe news reported. Thaksin called the charter a “folly” on Thursday, saying it would perpetuate the junta’s power and make it impossible to govern Thailand.
Thaksin’s supporters credit him with recognizing the inequality between urban Bangkok and the poor in the rural north and northeast.
The military threw out the old constitution when it took power in 2014, after months of political instability and sporadic violence. Whether the blast was connected to the voting in referendum was not known.
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“I accept the decision of the people”, Yingluck said in a social media post yesterday, her first reaction to Sunday’s poll, adding she was “not surprised” at the result due to the bar on debating the document.
