At the sixth polling centre in Dusit district, an official said there had been no problem answering voters’ questions on any issue related to the main referendum question, as it was simple – whether the charter should be accepted or not.

However, the additional question was far more complicated. It took up four lines on the ballot, asking whether all members of Parliament should be allowed to select the prime minister.

“The second question asks whether you would like Parliament to select the PM,” one polling official said. “Please mark the left box with an ‘x’ if you agree with it, or mark the right box if you disagree,” an election official told voters.

But when The Nation asked the official who in Parliament would be authorised to do what, as stated in the question, the official replied, “I don’t know”.

Some voters said they came today to express their rejection of the ruling junta.

A 72-year-old man told The Nation his democratic ideology was the major factor in how he was going to vote.

“I didn’t really want to come vote today. I don’t want to be a part of this system. But I can’t let the military stay any longer,” he said.

A 59-year-old woman said she did not have time to give the charter a thorough study and was surprised to find another question.

“I read the question three to four times before getting what it says. It says that some unelected people in Parliament will also be allowed to choose the PM,” she said.

“I’m too busy making a living to read the draft. I also didn’t receive any copies of the contents.

“But I gathered something from what I heard from people around me,” she said in explaining how she was able to decide on how she would vote.

Patcharee Eiamkomla, assistant director of the Dusit District Office, said the estimated attendance at the sixth polling station should be satisfactory, except for people who came from other constituencies – only to find they were not able to vote.

“They didn’t know that they needed to register prior to voting day to cast their ballot outside their constituency [where they are registered as living], because they didn’t need to do that in previous elections,” she said.

“Regulations applied in this voting are very different from previous elections. We, officers, had to learn a lot about them, too.”