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Thai election commission hopes 80% turnout of voters in August referendum

Xinhua, May 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

The election commission of Thailand hopes for a turnout of at least 80 percent in the August 7 referendum on its new draft constitution, Pravich Rattanapian, a commission official in charge of public participation, said on Tuesday, while recent poll said most people are still undecided.

Pravich said this in his speech while chairing the opening ceremony of a training course for a second batch of teachers to be deployed to promote public understanding of joining in the referendum.

Only 57 percent turnout of voters took part in the 2007 referendum, this year we will work hard to make a turnout of 80 percent, by encouraging people to vote in the coming two months, said Pravich, adding that they will knock door of every house of every village to explain how to vote without making a ballot invalid.

He also mentioned that an unofficial result of the referendum was expected to be known by 7:00 pm local time on August 7, Bangkok Post reported.

A recent released poll, or the third survey on the constitution referendum by National Institute for development Administration (Nida), said 39.53 percent of the total 1500 interviewees were still undecided, while 19.73 percent said they would vote but still had no clear answer yet.

According to the poll, which was conducted between May 23 to May 24, 32.07 percent of interviewees would vote for the draft, compared with only 8.67 percent said they would reject it.

The poll also asked people's stance on a second referendum question, which would ask voters to decide whether appointed senators should be allowed to elect a new prime minister along with elected members of parliaments.

According to its result, 29.2 percent of interviewees supported the proposal, 21.93 percent were against it, while 38.47 percent said they were undecided and 10.4 percent said they would vote but had no clear answer yet. Endit