No need to postpone referendum, poll finds

The question on whether the referendum should be deferred was raised after the Ombudsman requested a Constitutional Court ruling over whether clause two of Article 61 of the referendum law violates people’s rights and liberty as guaranteed by Article 4 of the 2014 interim charter.

Clause two bans dissemination of false, vulgar and inciting messages through the media.

Some 67 per cent of those surveyed believed the referendum should not be deferred, 20 per cent said it should be postponed and 12 per cent said they were not certain.

Some 46 per cent said the charter draft should be altered to reduce conflicts among political groups, 38 per cent said it should not be altered and 15 per cent said they were not sure.

Another 63 per cent said they supported Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to continue in the job if the charter draft did not pass the referendum, 21 per cent said they did not support him and 15 per cent said they were not sure.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission yesterday held its second public hearing on “The charter draft, public referendum and the people” in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, National Economics Social and Development Board secretary-general Porametee Vimolsiri, Constitution Drafting Commission representative Prapan Naikowit, National Legislative Assembly representatives Klanarong Chantik and Somchai Sawaengkan, and Election Commission representative Somchai Srisuthiyakorn.

About 600 people attended the meeting that included provincial governors from 14 southern provinces, provincial police chiefs, provincial election commissioners and politicians, mostly from the Democrat Party.

Klanarong said that the NLA invented the additional referendum question about allowing senators to select the PM during the five-year transitional period following the next election because it wanted national reform and national strategies to be accomplished.

Somchai, from the EC, said if the government wanted to postpone the referendum, the interim charter must be amended. If the referendum were not postponed, the EC would campaign to make voters exercise their voting rights, he said.

“The high turnout of voters means the legitimacy of the referendum,’’ he said.

He insisted that people have the liberty to express their opinions about the charter draft, just not in a false or vulgar way or in a manner that might incite disturbances.

Wissanu said the charter was the solution to address problems facing the country that happened before the coup on May 22, 2014. 

He said since General Surayud Chulanont’s administration till May 22 last year, the country was not at peace – a period covering four governments in eight years. The Prayut government has pushed for 120 laws to try to curb national conflicts and division, he said. 

“We must reform both people and rules. We changed the rules by preventing bad people from rising to power,” he said. “The charter draft is the solution but we will get to use this solution or not depend on the referendum results.”

The EC’s Somchai declared the hearing a success and said it would be used as a model for next hearings in Chiang Mai and Nakhon Ratchasima.

Somchai said he felt it was necessary to maintain clause two of Article 61 because he felt that the Computer Act, the Criminal Law and the National Council for Peace and Order were not enough to handle the situation if some groups violated the clause.

He said the EC would testify in court that clause two did not violate people’s rights and freedom.

“People enjoy rights and liberty but within a boundary and if there is not a boundary, there could be political turmoil two months before the referendum is held,’’ he said.

The EC will allow the Resistant Citizens group to hold a mini concert with songs that have lyrics about rejecting the charter draft outside the EC on Wednesday.

Somchai said if the songs carried messages to try and influence voters to vote either way in the referendum, the EC would take legal action against the group.

Democrat Party deputy leader Nipit Intarasombat said the charter draft was biased against politicians and he felt the atmosphere in the run-up to the referendum was not democratic because people who rejected the charter were not given as much chance to express their views as people who accepted it.

A key figure in the now-defunct People’s Democratic Reform Committee, Withaya Kaewparadai, said he wished the Prayut government reforms the country before the general election is held because he had no hope that an elected government would succeed in doing so.

Wissanu said reforming the country before the election was easier said than done because drastic changes would bring about conflicts. “We believe that an elected government would be articulate in accomplishing national reform and managing the conflicts,’’ he said.

Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd hit back at the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship over its attack on the government after the government vented its displeasure over the UDD setting up centres to monitor the referendum for fraud.

Sansern said the UDD was wrong to jump to the conclusion that if the government did not allow it to set up such a centre, it meant the government intended to allow referendum fraud.