DRIVING ALONG the main roads of Isaan, the distance between referendum placards posted by the roadside is often more than 100 kilometres. In many provinces including Udon Thani, it is rare to see referendum advertisements along the road. The most activity is in Nakhon Ratchasima, commonly known as Korat, the country’s largest province.

On a sunny day three weeks before the referendum in Muang Nakhon Ratchasima district, Reserved Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) students were handing out leaflets reading “charter referendum August 7” to residents.

The volunteer students had been trained to ask voters to cast their ballots in the referendum to decide whether the charter draft is approved or not.

The teenage students have been asked to help the provincial Election Commission (EC) to encourage villagers to exercise their voting rights, said Thitipol Todsarod, director of the Korat EC office.

The province has 2.05 million eligible voters and, as the country’s largest province with 32 districts, Korat has marshalled nearly 4,000 individuals to promote the referendum. The task has been a challenge for all concerned authorities, Thitipol said.

According to an EC source, the head of Provincial Police Region 3, the Provincial Public Health Office, the Korat Chamber of Commerce and the Provincial Education Officer have joined Korat’s governor to form a provincial committee, which is tasked with running and overseeing the voting process in the province.

The EC is also responsible for training polling station administrators, and last Tuesday alone trained 230 officials selected by district heads, according to the EC source. Topics on the training agenda include laws related to the referendum and the charter, procedures that apply before, during and after the vote, and how to use the Rapid Report App.

“The Rapid Report App will be used by heads of polling booths to report the voting results of each station after vote counts are finished. The voting results will be conveyed to the central EC, which will be monitoring the results nationwide,” the source said.

After the EC trains the district officers, they will pass on voting procedures to polling administrators at 4,476 stations, he said

Polling staff include teachers, village heads and other officials, the source said, adding that each polling station will on average have eight officials.

“Besides the provincial committee and the polling station staff, the EC office also has its own force to directly invite the people to vote this weekend,” Thitipol said.

Korat province’s referendum campaigners include 2,890 officials from the EC’s tambon democracy and election promotion centres, 300 volunteer ROTC students, 470 village health volunteers, 230 officials from the district level, 30 trained radio broadcasters and 25 EC officials charged with training, he said.

The Korat EC office has also initiated a referendum campaign to mobilise specific groups of voters.

The EC has focused on including provincial chambers of commerce and Chinese family business networks to promote the referendum, Thitipol said.

“In the cities, most people live in developed housing, which our campaigners could not access. So we have to ask for local business networks to cooperate. We want them to help to spread the referendum issues,” he said.

The EC yesterday promoted a “free and fair” referendum by holding a public discussion about the charter and referendum at the provincial capital’s city hall.

Korat Governor Vichien Chantaranotai presided over the talk, which aimed to explain the issues and answer voters’ questions regarding the charter and the referendum’s additional question about the Senate’s ability to jointly select the next prime minister, the EC source said.

According to the event agenda, speakers included provincial officers who were trained by the Constitution Drafting Committee and legal experts selected by the official organisers.

Thitipol said the EC and authorities are ready to stage a “Big Day” activity today. According to the programme, state organisations and the public sector including public servants, businesspeople, ordinary citizens and students will join referendum parades marching throughout the city to gather at the statue of Thao Suranari in Korat’s city centre.

“Big Day” activities will be held across the country in an attempt to promote the referendum and achieve the 80-per-cent voter turnout goal despite the relatively silent political discourse.