THAILAND CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM UPDATE AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 004464 SIPDIS SIPDIS NSC FOR PHU E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/16/2017 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KDEM TH SUBJECT: THAILAND CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM UPDATE AND SUGGESTED RESPONSE Classified By: Ambassador Ralph L. Boyce, reason 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Things appear on track for a reasonably orderly referendum process on August 19, although anti-charter protests could lead to isolated incidents at polling stations. Allegations of vote-buying to secure a "no' vote and government officials advocating for a "yes" vote continue, but actual evidence of fraud is hard to come by. The government continues to push for good turn-out, and all media and contacts anticipate that the constitution will pass, although there is very little hard data to support projections one way or the other. We might know the results by late on August 19 local time but are more likely to have an announcement in the afternoon on Monday, August 20. If voters vote "yes," it will be largely to promote a smoother path to elections before the end of the year, not out of intrinsic support for the new constitution. Even if the voting goes smoothly on Sunday, we should not endorse or embrace this process. We include suggested press guidance in para 8. END SUMMARY. WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN? -------------- ¶2. (C) Things appear on track for basically orderly referendum process on Sunday August 19. Predictions of voter turnout are creeping up as the government continues a very vigorous get-out-the-vote campaign. The opposition is urging citizens to be on guard against government manipulation of the vote, and to vote no. This week, the Thai Rak Thai group (politicians loyal to former PM Thaksin) launched 100 red pickup trucks to circulate in and around Bangkok carrying anit-charter campaigners and literature. The Prime Minister held a rally in Chiang Mai, urging voters not to take any money for their vote, and leading them in a pledge to "vote their conscience." Anti-charter activity is reportedly getting more creative. There are stories of "bogus postmen" delivering anti-charter DVDs to households, and anonymous letters sent to voters telling them that the new constitution would cancel the universal health scheme, and legalize wiretapping. On the other side, anti-charter activists allege that villagers in one province were told the village would lose development funds if it voted against the charter, and accusations of pro-charter bias by officials are widespread. Anti-charter activity could lead to incidents at some polling stations, particularly if charter opponents destroy their ballots (which is illegal) or organize protests; on the whole, however, we are not expecting serious problems of this kind on Sunday. ¶3. (SBU) Poloff currently traveling in the heart of Thaksin country, Thailand's rural northeast, tried to track down accounts of vote-buying by charter opponents; these accusations have gotten a lot of attention in the Bangkok press. Local election officials in Surin province said they had no evidence of vote buying and expressed frustration that the allegations continue to circulate. In neighboring Buriram, however, the Vice Governor told poloff that the government had two eyewitnesses to this activity, and would press charges against a politician associated with local strongman and Thaksin loyalist Newin Chidchob. The Buriram VG said that local elections officials were not following up on reports of anti-charter vote-buying because "they were afraid Thaksin was coming back" and did not want to be on the wrong side of the political conflict. ¶4. (C) One village chief told poloff that he had been asked to send in a report on Saturday estimating the number of villagers who would vote. He said he was encouraging people to go and vote, but denied he'd received any orders to tell people to support the constitution. (Comment: nonetheless, everyone understands that a "yes" vote will please the current government more than a "no" vote, and this cannot help but influence the actions of local officials. End comment.) The junta, to some extent, can't win for losing. Earlier this year, it was widely believed that the referendum idea was a stunt the CNS came up to ensure that the draft charter would fail. It was rumored that the draft, which was written by respected jurists and academics, was "too soft" for the generals. According to this view, they hoped the draft would fail the referendum, so they would have an excuse BANGKOK 00004464 002 OF 003 to draw up their own authoritarian charter. It is somewhat ironic that the CNS/government is now being accused of going overboard trying to get the charter approved in Sunday's vote. ¶5. (SBU) Every commentator and official we've heard from still maintains that the new constitution is most likely to pass the referendum, although some contacts in the Northeast believe it might fail in some provinces there. There is very little hard data to support projections one way or the other. Local officials in the Northeast province of Surin report that the concern raised most often by villagers is the absence of state religion status for Buddhism. This appears to be a particular concern in Surin, home of several of the monks who led the protests to give Buddhism official status. (Note: In her birthday speech last week, the Queen argued against including state religion status in the constitution, which caused some of the remaining advocates of that idea to announce they would no longer campaign for it. Those poloff talked to in the Northeast, however, had not heard about the speech. End note.) WHEN WILL WE KNOW THE RESULT? -------------- ¶6. (SBU) The Election Commission has set up a media center and will give press conferences every two hours on referendum day until about 10:30 pm. It is possible that they might announce preliminary results by then, but more likely that they will announce the results on the afternoon of Monday, August 20. According to the written procedures, every polling station commission must physically bring the voting materials, including their document recording the official tally of the vote at their station, to the District Election Commission. Once the District Commission has gotten in all the results from its area, it will prepare a document recording its tally, and physically take it to the Provincial Election Commission. The head of the Provincial Commission must tally up all the results from the province, and physically bring the document showing the province totals to Bangkok by noon on August 20. One local election commission in the Northeast insisted to us that they would follow these procedures to the letter; in another district, they said they'd be faxing in their results. In any case, the need to get all the results in for the district before reporting up to the province and then to Bangkok means, at least in theory, that a couple of tardy polling place commissions could prevent a whole province from reporting its results. That was one problem encountered in the 2006 annulled election, when the difficulty of getting ballot boxes in from remote mountain communities slowed the results from some northern provinces. WHAT DOES IT MEAN, AND WHAT SHOULD WE SAY -- OR, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING? -------------- ¶7. (C) Even if the voting on Sunday goes perfectly, we cannot endorse or embrace this process with enthusiasm. The government keeps trying to turn this into a gala celebration of democracy, but the people are mostly not buying it. The referendum is primarily a box-checking exercise, Voting yes is widely, and probably correctly, viewed as the best way to ensure a smoother path to elections before the end of the year. The people are being given a choice, but a limited one. According to the interim constitution, if this new draft does not pass the referendum, the Council for National Security (CNS) can pick any previous charter, amend it as necessary, and promulgate it. The CNS has not committed to which charter it would choose and revise if this draft fails, so the people don't know what the alternative to this draft is. And, realistically, the CNS really can't say which of the previous (seventeen) charters it would choose. If they announce that the alternative is the 1997 Constitution, than the new draft would surely fail, as the CNS/government have not made any clear argument why this new version is better. If they announce any other constitution as the alternative, they would raise a ruckus and be accused of being dictators (even though at least one previous constitution - 1973 -- is regarded as pretty good by some lawyers and academics.) It is generally felt that the 1997 Constitution's flaws, which BANGKOK 00004464 003 OF 003 were real, could have been fixed through amendment more efficiently than through writing a new charter. ¶8. (SBU) We therefore recommend that, in any public statements about the referendum, regardless of the results, we decline to get drawn too far into an assessment or endorsement, and maintain our focus on the need to return to fully civilian, elected government as soon as possible. Suggested press guidance: Q; WHAT DO WE THINK ABOUT THE THAI REFERENDUM? A: -- We believe that the Thai people want to return to civilian, elected government as soon as possible, and we support them in this. -- We are pleased that there was no violence in connection with Sunday's voting. We hope that any challenges or allegations of fraud will be fairly and transparently adjudicated. -- It is up to the Thai people to determine what is in their constitution. There was, overall, a lively exchange of views in the lead-up to the vote, although we note that some parts of the country remain under martial law, which may have inhibited some citizens from fully expressing their views. -- We look forward to the next step in the restoration of democratic government in Thailand -- elections before the end of the year. (If the charter passes the vote:) Q: WHAT DO WE THINK ABOUT THIS CONSTITUTION? A: -- As I said, it's up to the Thai people to determine what is in their constitution. We hope that free and fair elections before the end of this year will enable an elected parliament to consider possible amendments to this draft, if the Thai public supports changes. (If the charter fails:) A: -- As I said, it's up to the Thai people to determine what is in their constitution. We hope that free and fair elections before the end of the year will give rise to a parliament that has the legitimacy to deal with constitutional issues. BOYCE