The junta, meanwhile, has voiced a belief that the draft would provide the country with the means to operate with more stability, while combatting the endemic corruption that plagues the country’s politics. The aim of the constitution was “to keep watching or controlling the government’s actions (to) make sure they aren’t doing anything that undemocratic”.
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A one-sided information campaign by the junta has left the majority of Thais undecided about how to vote and liable to make impulsive decisions, a leading pollster said last week. A university professor was also told by the Election Commission to stop expressing his views on the draft constitution.
He suggested, however, that the political repression “has boomeranged because the other side has gathered some steam and we are seeing more anti-charter movement rising”.
A section on national reform in the draft constitution features broad and vague statements that can not help us picture what the country will look like after reform takes place. Both Yingluck’s Pheu Thai party and their opposition Democrat party have publicly rejected the charter, citing articles which would weaken the elected lower house of parliament while extending the influence of the military.
A Yes vote would also enshrine the vesting of a great deal of power in appointed rather than elected officials.
Dozens of people, nearly all opponents of the draft, have been arrested on accusations of violating the law, which has given the government a monopoly on disbursing information about the charter.
Human rights groups have voiced concern in the run up to Thailand’s controversial constitutional referendum saying a ban on campaigning and a crackdown on dissent is preventing Thais from making an informed choice and potentially handing an advantage to the country’s military. “General Prayuth and his council of elders clearly have no intention of willingly ceding their grip on power, and so they have provided the Thai people not with a clear choice, but a unsafe catch-22”.
“If we soldiers are ordered to do something, we do it”, Pongpon said as his men marched up and down beneath a tropical sun.
Future governments, they said, would be legally obliged to follow a 20-year national development plan set by the army.
It has promised to hold elections next year regardless of the outcome of the referendum. His sister Yingluck swept to power with an electoral landslide in 2011. “In a way the ECT ends up being part of the [vote yes] campaign, while on the other hand we see nearly daily suppression of the No vote”.
Mahouts and their elephants display a poster during a campaign ahead of the August 7 referendum in Ayutthaya province, north of Bangkok, Thailand, August 1, 2016. “So what they want and what we are trying to do is have a cleaner government, have better politicians who view the interests of the people at heart”.
Prayut said Friday that he will personally vote in favor of the constitution.
Thaksin’s political machine has easily won every national election since 2001, relying on the support of working-class and rural voters who benefited from his populist policies.
The turmoil has been compounded by the frail health of 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, as competing elites jostle ahead of any transition. He has lived overseas since 2008 to avoid prison for a corruption conviction that he says was politically motivated. The military has successfully seized power 12 times since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932 and this constitution will be the kingdom’s twentieth if passed.
Thitinan, the political scientist, said their premise is that elected politicians are the root of Thailand’s problems, so it is important to check their power. “As a result, we will see power and authority shifted away from elected representatives to appointed agencies and individuals”. This is for the future of the country.
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Polls opened at 8am (01:00 GMT) on Sunday offering Thais the first chance to vote since generals toppled a democratically elected government in 2014.
