Political analyst Michael H. Nelson has spent the last few weeks observing the constitution referendum in Chachoengsao province. Here on New Mandala, he will be providing more coverage and pictures from voting day. For now he has provided this short update for our series on the 2007 referendum.
He writes:
I stayed at the Provincial Election Commission (PEC) until 23.15, when the final results covering all districts were completed. Luckily, a member of the PEC took me home since there is no transportation around here at that time. Now it is Monday, and I have just returned from the PEC. People could contest the polling within 24 hours after the polling stations closed, so some staff members had to turn up, although they had worked until midnight the day before. There were no complaints.
Tomorrow, there will be a meeting of the PEC. They will use it to get the results for the municipal areas and the sub-districts. Turnout in the end was 57.08%. Only one district voted against the constitution, while another one was quite close. Both are the most backward districts in this province. Altogether, there were 172,227 votes in favor, and 94,995 votes against the constitution.
Country-wide, the result is 14,727,407 (57.81%) to 10,747,310 (42.19%), with strong regional disparities (South vs. Isarn, with the North split). National turnout stands at 57.61% of eligible voters, so Chachoengsao is in the average range.
3 responses so far ↓
1 observer // Aug 21, 2007 at 12:30 pm
A clearer explanation of the meaning of backwards in this context would be helpful in understanding the breakdown of the voting, and quite possibily the bias of the author.
2 Michael H. Nelson // Aug 21, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Would I express a bias if I said that many areas of Isarn are more “backward” than Bangkok?
3 Darwin // Aug 22, 2007 at 11:59 am
Yes, you would.
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