Amended Constitution : a referendum will be organized in… july

The government will organise a referendum on whether the charter should be amended, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Wednesday.

The Cabinet is expected next week to allocate Bt2 billion for the nationwide vote. (Nation)

That’s a total U-Turn (as usual)… Before, all the PPP officials said that a referendum won’t be organized after the charter rewrite. Or is it Samak who speaks… alone ?

Anyway. If we have a new referendum it means that the rewrite will be… extensive.

And what about new elections ?

We could have the exact mirror of 2007 with one referendum and one general elections.

UPDATE 1
Here we go again… The Thai Flying Circus. “Election Commission member Prapun Naigowit said on Wednesday that the referendum on charter rewrite could not be organised because of the lack of the organic law governing the voting procedure.

For the referendum to be held, Parliament is obliged to first pass the referendum law. The previous referendum on the 2007 Constitution took place under the provisions under the 2006 Interim Constitution.” (Nation)

Possible ? Not possible ? Half possible ?

UPDATE 2
“Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said the referendum will be simple: Do you want the constitution amended, or not? The changes themselves will not be up for discussion or a vote.” (Bangkok Post)

“There will be 45 days for campaigning, so the referendum would take place in early July. If people are opposed to amending the constitution, then there is no need to amend it.”

“The referendum will be on whether to amend or not to amend. I will seek a 2 billion baht ($64 million) budget for the referendum, which will bring satisfaction to the Thai people and end the divisiveness in our country,” Samak said.

It’s amazing. They would like to ask the thai people to give them a blank check ! ?