Thai PM tries to gather support for constitution vote

BANGKOK, July 2 (Reuters) Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont ordered top bureaucrats today to help promote Thailand's post-coup constitution ahead of a referendum due in August, with present signs showing that it faces rejection.

The army-appointed parliament was also drafting a law to penalise anyone who obstructed the referendum, he said, as the government cranked up efforts to win approval for a draft constitution that is opposed by many groups for many reasons.

''I have instructed leaders of every ministry to help educate the people on the draft charter, which will be passed by the Charter Drafting Council on July 6,'' Surayud told reporters after meeting senior bureaucrats from 19 ministries.

''They have to be ready for the referendum,'' he said.

The order came as the now-defunct party of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to campaign for a ''no'' vote in the plebiscite set for Aug. 19.

Coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin met senior military officers at the weekend and ordered them to educate soldiers about the importance of Thailand's first referendum.

The army chief said rejection of the draft charter could delay general elections Surayud has promised by year's end.

Sonthi said they might have to be postponed due to delays in passing other constitution-related laws and other factors.

If voters did reject the draft constitution, Sonthi and Surayud would have 30 days to pick one of the nation's past 17 constitutions, according to an interim charter promulgated after Thaksin was ousted in a bloodless coup last September.

Since June, the Constitution Drafting Council has been running half-page advertisements in newspapers urging the people to vote ''Yes'' for the new charter to pave way for the elections.

But Chaturon Chaisang, head of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party which was dissolved for breaking election law, told reporters today that voters were entitled to oppose a charter they viewed undemocratic.

''We will be telling the public that if they feel the draft charter is undemocratic, they must reject it,'' Chaturon said.

Thai Rak Thai, which won landslide election victories in 2001 and 2005, wanted the 1997 ''People's Constitution'' torn up in last year's coup to be brought back.

Thai Rak Thai supporters are expected to be joined in opposition by a wide variety of groups, including rights activists who say some clauses in the new charter are affronts to democracy and freedom.

Religious activists want Buddhism, the faith of 90 per cent of Thais, to be made the state religion.

REUTERS RN HS1836