Campaign to urge voters to return to Northeast for referendum, Pheu Thai official says
A former Pheu Thai MP said Wednesday that people in the Northeast were considering an “Isaan Return” campaign, encouraging citizens to return to their home towns to exercise their voting rights in next month’s referendum on the draft charter in order to d
Pheu Thai deputy secretary-general Chavalit Vichayasuth, a former party-list MP, claimed Isaan people had already decided how they would vote in the referendum.
He said he had talked to other former Pheu Thai MPs, and heard that people who had lost their jobs and returned to the Northeast help out on their families’ farms would vote in the August 7 plebiscite to show that they are aware of democracy and fairness. But as for those who still work in Bangkok, their parents or other relatives would ask them to visit their families on the eve of the referendum day so they could to cast their votes on August 7, he said.
He claimed the major concern Northeastern people had about the draft was its provision for 250 appointed senators. The non-elected Senate would be empowered to join elected members of the lower house to select a prime minister if the additional question on that issue passed the referendum.
Chavalit said locals had asked the so-called Kru Khor (Teacher C) volunteers, who have been trained to spread information about the charter in face-to-face contact with voters, why the draft stipulates such a Senate. However, the Teacher C people could not answer, he said.
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