Following a joint meeting between the Cabinet and the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), a press conference has been held by NCPO Spokesperson Col Winthai Suvaree and his deputy Col Sirichan Ngathong.
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Voters in Thailand today overwhelmingly approved a new constitution drafted by the military-led government. He also warned against some elements who still try to distort the fact about the charter claiming that it was a military-mandated charter.
The full results are due on Wednesday.
The military has used laws supporting the referendum to fine and imprison for up to 10 years those campaigning against the draft.
A new constitution was a key part of the junta’s “roadmap to democracy”, which it set out after toppling ex-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in a coup in May 2014.
Yingluck’s pro-democracy Puea Thai party had been widely assumed to still enjoy mass support and maintain the power to mobilize their voters.
Even if Thais vote “no”, the military will remain in control for the foreseeable future.
One of the most controversial clauses calls for the 250-seat senate to be fully appointed by the military government.
Experts have also said the vote serves to confirm or deny the legitimacy of military rule in the country since a coup in 2014.
The passage of the charter means the junta is more likely to stick to its current time line of holding elections late next year. Voting went smoothly, the election commission chairman said.
Thailand’s Election Commission said that with 91 per cent of the votes counted, 61 per cent have voted in favour.
The Pheu Thai party made several criticisms on the draft constitution, such as too much curtailment of administrative officials and too much power bestowed upon the Constitutional Court and any independent organizations, the possible generation of a multiparty government which is not stable enough to run the country, and a almost impossible amendment of the constitution, adding that it is also unfair that the draft exempts the NCPO from any punishments.
While approval of the constitution will lead re-installing an elected government, it will be a weaker one than before the coup.
“Relatively low turnout and the absurd measures that Thailand’s dictatorship took to prevent meaningful discussion of the draft constitution certainly contributed to the dictatorship’s surprisingly easy victory”.
Critics say the overall aim is to create coalition governments that are fragile and fractious and effectively extend the military’s influence for the foreseeable future.
Thaksin easily won every national election since 2001, with the support of working-class and rural voters who benefited from his populist policies. The military has said the new Constitution would stem endemic political corruption and bring stability, but critics have said it will entrench military control.
“We see [the constitution] as a return to a period where you don’t have people confronting each other on the streets”, Constitution Drafting Committee spokesman Norachit Sinhaseni told reporters in March, according to AFP “That is what the majority of Thais want”. The vote comes against the back-drop of concern about the health of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88.
“I don’t see why Thai people have to choose between a corrupt, abusive democratically elected government and no democracy”, Abhisit said.
“The politics from now will be more compromising, more negotiating”, Yuthaporn Issarachai, the dean of political science at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, said in a television interview.
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The upper house will keep elected lawmakers in check, while courts and other watchdog bodies will be given increased powers – despite already being accused of political bias.
