Thailand voted on Sunday to approve a new Constitution drawn up by the ruling junta, preliminary results showed, in a major victory for the army and a blow to the stuttering pro-democracy movement.
Partial results released by the Election Commission late on Sunday showed 62 per cent of voters had approved the charter, with 90 per cent of votes counted so far.
Geographic divide
Authorities estimated a subdued turnout at around 55 per cent of Thailand’s 50.2 million registered voters, after a poll run-up that saw independent campaigning and open debate barred.
Sunday’s referendum was the first time Thais have been able to go to the polls since Army chief-turned-Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha toppled the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014. The kingdom is split after a decade of political turmoil that has damaged growth, seen democracy shunted aside and left scores dead in rival street protests.
The preliminary results starkly illustrate the kingdom’s bitter geographic divide. Only the impoverished and rural northeast — a region that has voted in droves for successive governments turfed out by the arm, and the deep south— hit by a Muslim insurgency — voted against the charter. Thai military has successfully seized power 12 times since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932 and this Constitution will be the kingdom’s 20th.
