The Thai police summoned a 25-year-old anti-junta citizen from central Thailand for expressing that he will not turn up for the 7 August referendum on the junta-sponsored draft charter while a renowned anti-lèse majesté intellectual said that he will not participate in the referendum either.
At 11 am on Thursday, 4 August 2016, Wasin Wainiya, a 25-year-old man from the central province of Nonthaburi, reported to Muang District Police Station of the province.
Wasin reported that the police contacted him on Wednesday to report to the police station the next day after he visited the provincial office of the Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) and informed the ECT staff that he will not participate on the 7 August public referendum.
After he visited the ECT office, he went to the local poll collection venue in the province then crossed his name out of the voter list and wrote a message reads ‘[I] did not have the rights to draft it, so I will not participate.’
“I reject all the procedure and the process to draft the constitution and the [organise] the referendum. I reject them all because they did not come about via democratic means,” Wasin told Prachatai.
He added that he had studied the controversial Public Referendum Act and it does not say that crossing one’s name from the voter list is illegal.
Image of Wasin crossing his name from the voter list at the poll station in Nonthaburi Province on 3 August 2016 (Photo from Sa-nguan Khumrungroj Facebook)
At the police station, the police officer who summoned Wasin was not at the station. Therefore, the officers wrote on the police report that he visit the station as summoned. So far, the authorities have not filed any accusation against him.
Earlier on Tuesday, Sulak Sivaraksa, a renowned Thai intellectual known for his royalist stand and fierce criticisms against the lèse majesté law, posted a Facebook message on his Facebook account that he will not participate in the upcoming draft constitution referendum either.
“I will not participate in the vote because the NCPO [National Council for Peace and Order, the formal name of the Thai junta] is a military dictatorship who let the lawmakers who serve them drafted the constitution. Therefore, in essence this draft constitution is not democratic. If I participate in the vote it would mean that I accept the NCPO’s legitimacy, so I will not involve in any of this,” read Sulak’s Facebook message.
Sulak Sivaraksa