Ever since the special law to regulate the August national referendum came into effect, it’s been a bigger deal than the constitution draft.

Media coverage has focused tightly on the do’s and don’ts of the referendum campaign, analysing whether this or that document or action is legal or illegal according to the Act, and whether some might be charged with violating it and how.

Likewise, political players are now engaged in a vigorous debate over freedom of expression, free and fair campaigning, and whether these two principles are desirable or permitted.

News reports prompt a daily cycle in which pro-democracy groups first call for open discussion of the draft in order that voters can make a knowledgeable decision. The next day authorities will announce that campaigning is allowed but warn activists not to cross the line by distorting the charter or stirring up unrest.

Then someone gets arrested. Pro-democracy activists will come out again to voice the importance of freedom of expression in the run-up to the vote, demand the withdrawal of charges, and call for free and fair campaigning and/or the nullification of Article 61.

And the same authorities will reiterate that campaigns are absolutely not prohibited by law, but that the activists have been charged for violating the junta’s ban on political gatherings. They will also announce that spreading false information misleads voters and endangers the referendum. And some documents circulating on and offline will be banned.

And repeat.

That picture is likely to continue until the day of the vote, judging from the launch of a new anti-charter document last weekend and the reaction.

Nobody seems to care anymore how a document criticises the charter. All everyone wants to know is how the authorities will react, whether it violates the referendum law, whether someone will be put in jail, and maybe what the international community is going to say.

Twenty days before we go to the ballot, more than three quarters of 1,233 respondents of a Suan Dusit Poll conducted nationwide said that information on referendum matters should be disseminated more widely while almost 65 per cent said “most people do not understand the constitution”.

Twenty days until referendum day, everyone agrees that voters need more information about the proposed supreme law before casting a ballot. But all that’s making headlines is the referendum law, with authorities spending time and energy explaining it and activists fighting against it.

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