Cabinet approves Election Commission’s draft bill on conducting referendum

Dissatat Hotrakit, secretary general of the Council of State, did not go into details, but government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the Cabinet paid particular attention to the EC’s duty to provide public spaces for discussions on the referendum. 

State radio and television stations will rearrange their programme schedules to broadcast the discussions, as designated by the EC.

Any group organising discussions without the EC’s observation, regardless of how “dangerous” the contents of the discussion will be, may risk violating the law, he said. 

The Cabinet also focused on Article 44, which gives a range of definitions for voided ballots, from fake ballots to marked up ballots.

The weekly meeting also looked carefully at what were wrongful voting actions, such as tearing up ballots, inciting protests against the referendum and conducting polls or revealing poll results on the referendum seven days prior to the voting date.

The government resolved to hold the referendum tentatively on August 7, he said.

 Jate Siratharanont, spokesman of the National Legislative Assembly, said the NLA has scheduled to deliberate the bill at the end of this week.

The NLA will ask voters one question at the referendum about the country’s solution that may not be related to the public’s acceptance of the new charter, said Surachai Liengboonlertchai, deputy NLA president. 

The National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) will propose its question to the NLA after it has selected it from a set of proposed questions debated within its 12 committees. The NRSA should submit its question to the NLA for consideration by April 1, he said. 

NLA members are also allowed to submit their initial questions to the assembly by April 5. The NLA will hold a meeting about April 7-8 to select the question. 

“The question will be about the country’s solutions and does not cause conflicts and affect national security,’’ he said. 

Seree Suwanpanont, chairman of the NRSA’s political reform committee, said his committee was planning political and non-political questions. 

Non-political issues could include people’s livelihoods, floods and droughts, and dam-building. 

An example of a political question was how to end political divisions. 

The committee would decide next week what are the most suitable questions, he said.