‘Yes Vote’ claims victory in referendum

Initial projections for Thailand’s August 2016 referendum predict that the military-backed draft constitution has been accepted by a safe majority.

On Sunday, 7 August 2016, at press time, VoiceTV’s real-time referendum results show that almost 90 per cent of August referendum ballots have been counted. In response to the referendum’s first question asking whether voters accepted the draft charter, some 62 percent of voters selected ‘yes’. But acceptance rates differ geographically.

Voters in central, southern and northern Thailand are projected to have accepted the constitution at rates of 69 per cent, 77 per cent and 58 per cent respectively. But in the northeast, the traditional mainstay of support for the Red Shirt movement, 51 per cent of voters selected ‘no’.

In response to the second question asking whether voters would approve a junta-appointed senate to jointly vote with the House of Representatives to select the Prime Minister, about 58 per cent of voters selected ‘yes’. Rates of approval again differed from region to region. In the centre, south and north, voters approved the proposal at rates of 68 per cent, 75 per cent and 54 per cent respectively. But in the northeast, 55 per cent of voters rejected the proposal.

These results confirm a political survey published by the National Institute of Development Administration, which predicted that the ‘Yes Vote’ would win with clear margins for both questions. The data was collected a day prior to the referendum but was published after polls closed at 4 pm on Sunday, from 5,849 respondents sampled for gender, education, age and income.

The unofficial referendum result: the first chart shows the vote result of the first question while the second reflects the second question result. The green part represents “Yes Votes” while red represents “No Votes”. (source: Voice TV)

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