<p>Alternative Thai media outlets, human rights advocacy groups and a youth election monitoring group have joined forces to launch a network to observe the public referendum on the draft charter.</p>

<p>Graffiti with messages against the referendum on the draft charter have appeared in the restive Deep South provinces.</p> <p>A Facebook user with the account <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zahri.binishak/posts/1247009595332128">Zahri Bin Ishak</a>&nbsp;on Monday, 1 August 2016, posted several images of graffiti on street or road signs, roads and buildings in the Deep South.</p> <p>The graffiti simply read ‘Public Referendum’ and ‘Thai Constitution’ crossed out or followed by a cross.</p>

<div>With only a week to the draft charter referendum, Thailand’s statesmen have urged the junta to use its absolute power to enshrine coups d’état into the constitution, ironically adding that this amendment will prevent future coups.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><img alt="" src="//c2.staticflickr.com/8/7224/7065116651_f9f0b2ed82_o.jpg" /></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On Friday, 29 July 2016, Gen Saiyud Kerdphol, the Chairperson of Thailand’s Statesmen’s Group, proposed that the junta should amend the draft constitution, which </div>

<p>Thai police have interrogated an anti-junta folk rock musician over the content of his songs before accusing him of violating the law by selling CDs at a public event on the upcoming draft charter referendum.</p> <p>A plainclothes police officer from Chana Songkhram Police Station, Bangkok, at around 6:30 pm on Saturday, 30 July 2016, arrested Parinya Cheewinkulpathom, a guitarist in the folk rock band ‘Tubtim Siam’ (Siamese Ruby), known for its anti-establishment political songs,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=1357">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported</a>.</p>

<div> <div>Voter lists for the August referendum face more epic and absurd struggles with dogs packs and a teenager who burned the list to repel mosquitoes. Meanwhile, some voters cannot check their names on the list due to excessively high security measures.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> </div> <h2>Dogs tear down voter lists</h2> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div> <div>After suffering from kids, monkeys, and heavy rain last weekend, voter lists for the August charter draft referendum have been again spoiled for a series of absurd reasons. </div></div>

<div> <div>Local authorities in the northeast of Thailand have accused an anti-dam activist of breaching the controversial Referendum Act after he criticized the draft charter on his Facebook three weeks ago. </div></div>

<p>Thai authorities have detained a nationalist in Isaan, northeastern Thailand, over a ‘no vote’ campaign. Meanwhile, another junta opponent in the north has been imprisoned over leaflets campaigning against the junta-sponsored draft charter.</p> <p>Kaewsaengbun Thamhaidi, deputy head of a nationalist political group called ‘People’s Peaceful Revolution’, reported on Thursday, 28 July 2016, that the authorities had detained Wichan Phuwihan, a 48-year-old member of the group, at Ubon Ratchathani Prison, after arresting him on Tuesday.</p>

<div>Drop Sedition Charges and End Repression Before August 7 Poll</div> <p></p>

<p dir="ltr">When the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) announced the “3 part road map” in June 2014, it indicated that restrictions on rights put in place following the 22 May 2014 coup would be temporary. In the immediate aftermath of the coup, and on several occasions since, Amnesty International has raised concerns that - even as temporary measures - many of these restrictions amount to human rights violations and as such are unacceptable.</p>

<div>The military in Chiang Mai has summoned six people and accused them of sedition without court approval, alleging that they were involved with the letters containing material criticizing the junta’s draft charter. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On Wednesday, 27 July 2016, Maj Gen Kosol Pratum summoned six people to a military camp in the northern province of Chiang Mai. The six are on the military’s list of ten people allegedly involved with the letter campaign against the junta-sponsored draft charter. </div>

<div><img alt="" src="http://newsfirst.lk/english/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/unhrc.jpg" /></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>GENEVA (26 July 2016) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, today condemned the alarmingly high number of arrests and charges over public and social media expression brought under military orders and the Constitutional Referendum Act in Thailand. </div>

<p>Ah, Ebbw Vale! &nbsp;That evocative name that conjures up the once biggest steelworks in Europe, the socialist ghosts of Aneurin Bevan and Michael Foot, and the gross affront to common sense that is Welsh spelling.</p> <p>Then the steel industry collapsed and the coal mines were savaged by Thatcher’s anti-unionism.&nbsp; By the beginning of this century Ebbw Vale’s people suffered chronic unemployment and its land suffered the toxic legacy of its industrial heyday.</p>