EC hopes to achieve higher voter turnout than last referendum

BANGKOK, 5 July 2016 (NNT) - The Election Commission (EC) has held its final meeting to prep government officials before they go door-to-door to educate people about the constitutional referendum.

The last meeting was organized by the commission and the Ministry of Education. The meeting was attended by a total of 1,200 staff members who belong to the Office of Non-formal and Informal Education. Vice Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) Supoj Kaimook and a member of the CDC, Prapan Naikowit, were invited to speak about the referendum and the draft charter.

Election Commissioner Prawit Rattanapien, who was also present at the meeting, said that those involved in promoting the referendum and educating people about the draft charter have 34 days left before the nationwide vote.

More than 74,000 people, including officials and volunteers, will visit homes and talk to people about why their vote is important to the referendum. They will try to encourage as many people as possible to turnout for the referendum on August 7.

The EC will launch another campaign called ‘Big Day’ on August 4 in several provinces in a final effort to get people to exercise their rights. Mr. Prawit hopes that the number of people heading to the ballot boxes will be higher than in the last referendum, where only 57% of eligible voters came out.


-- NNT 2016-07-05

if they want to educate people then a debate on the TV would be a million times more effective than going 'door to door' - this is the 21st century not the 19th

face to face to me is better as long as they provide the right information and how their vote is important to the country

face to face to me is better as long as they provide the right information and how their vote is important to the country

The good of it, from the Junta's point of view (and of it's allies), is that it won't be recorded like in a meeting or a TV debate, so nobody will know what these 74000 people really say. My guess is that they will talk about the merits of the charter

Of course, some of them will be nailed for inciting to vote yes (it's still possible to record them secretely with a mobile phone) but they will be dealt with as individual cases of people who did not understand the rules. And anyway the appointed EC will decide that it did not influence the results....

" those involved in promoting the referendum "

To promote means to actively encourage/support the referendum, hence the charter. In other words the government are actively encouraging the ordinary folk to vote, to vote yes .