A former law reform commissioner said that a fair referendum on the draft constitution is only dream under the repressive political environment while an election commissioner maintained that laws to regulate campaigns on the draft is necessary for preventing political conflict.
The BBC Thai reported on Monday, 2 May 2016, that Pairoj Polpetch, a human rights activist and former member of the Law Reform Commission of Thailand (LRTC), urged the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) and Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) to think of the people as the referendum on the draft constitution is approaching.
Pairoj said that the current political environment now is not conducive for the public referendum on the draft as Article 10 and Article 61 of the controversial Public Referendum Act only allow the authorities to hold campaigns to promote the draft constitution while limiting the rights and liberties of the draft constitution critics.
Comparing the current Public Referendum Act with its 2009 version, Pairoj said that the former act is better because it is more open towards criticisms, said Pairoj.
The former LRTC commissioner said that current Public Referendum Act written by the Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) is unfair, saying that people should be allowed to criticise the draft freely as long as it does not lead to violence and chaos.
He concluded that if people are not allowed space to voice their opinions on the draft constitution, even after the referendum on the draft is held, there is no guarantee that the political conflict will not arise.
On Tuesday, 3 May 2016, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), issued a statement on the upcoming referendum on the draft constitution, saying that people should freedom to criticise the draft constitution.
The NHRC added that the Draft Referendum Act should be interpreted in ways which does not prevent people from expressing their thoughts on the draft constitution.
According to Somchai Srisuthiyakorn, ECT commissioner, the enactment of laws to regulate campaigns on the draft constitution is necessary in order to prevent conflicts. However, he added that the act is not perfect and that it was adjusted by NLA, whose members were appointed by the junta, before it was enacted in order to prevent political groups to take advantage of the political situation.
He added that the act inclusively allows people to execute their rights in the process to pass the draft constitution.
Recently, the ECT issued a set of new rules to regulate the draft constitution campaigns, listing six ‘do(s)’ and eight ‘don’t(s)’ in addition to the controversial Draft Referendum Act. The new rules has not yet been published in the Royal Gazette.
Pairoj criticised that the do(s) are reasonable, but questioned the eight don’t(s) of the newly proposed ECT rules as one of the rules bans people to press ‘like’ on social media message about the draft constitution while rule No.4 states that seminars about the draft constitution cannot be held without participation from state agencies.
Article 61 of the current Draft Referendum Act imposes a prison term of up to 10 years, a fine of up to 200,000 baht and loss of electoral rights for five years on anyone who publishes or distributes content about the draft constitution which deviates from the facts, contains rule language, violent or threateningly discourages voters to participate in the draft constitution referendum.
Last week, Jiraphan Tanmani, President of the Rathawatanamani Fund -- an organization raising funds to promote autism rights -- was arrested for publishing content that was alleged to be severe, aggressive and rude with the intention of persuading the public to accept or not accept the draft charter in the August referendum.
She was arrested under Article 61 of the Referendum Act only eight hours after Somchai, Election Commissioner of Thailand, filed the complaint on the case.