Turnout key for both camps in Thai charter vote

By Nopporn Wong-Anan BURIRAM, Thailand, Aug 15 (Reuters) -Thailand's post-coup government is desperate for a big turnout in the country's first constitutional referendum on Sunday, while supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are urging people to vote ''No'' or stay home.

Few believe the anti-charter campaign -- feeble until last week and only now becoming noticeable -- will succeed in voting it down, but a low turnout would be a slap in the face for the generals who deposed Thaksin in a bloodless putsch last year.

The military council behind the coup, and the government it appointed, are using all their resources to get at least a 60 per cent turnout from the 45 million eligible voters.

''If turnout is anywhere below 50 per cent, passage would appear less legitimate,'' said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

In the northeast, a stronghold of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party which was dissolved after being found guilty of poll fraud, election officials allege villagers are being paid either to stay home or vote against the charter.

Accusations of vote-buying are routine in Thai elections, especially in the relatively poor northeast, one of the rural areas that helped Thaksin win two election landslides and where support for him is believed to be still strong.

This time, the price has risen to 300 baht (9 dollars) for a vote against the charter, from 50 baht a vote in the 2006 Senate election, said Staporn Chumupakarn, a chief district officer in Buriram province.

Buriram election chief Kasem Wattanatham said he had received little cooperation from provincial officials in arresting alleged vote-buyers as they were afraid of reprisals if ousted politicians returned to power.

''They are testing their networks of civil servants and local canvassers on how much they can still control them,'' he said. ''They don't think their anti-charter campaign can reject the charter. But if the 'NO' vote is large, they can use this to discredit its legitimacy.'' ARMY OUT IN FORCE To avoid embarrassment, coup leaders have enlisted 400,000 military personnel to persuade people to back the draft charter, branded by Thaksin -- subject of an arrest warrant issued by Thailand's Supreme Court yesterday -- as ''fruit of the poisonous tree''.

The Interior Ministry has instructed governors of all 76 provinces to order 80,000 village chiefs to get as many people as possible to the polling booths and to intercept vote-buying attempts.

Today, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont urged a 50,000 crowd in Chiang Mai, Thaksin's northern home town, to vote to pave the way for a ''legitimate and righteous'' political system.

Many politicians and analysts agree that the new constitution signals the end of strong, single-party government and means a return to the constantly collapsing coalitions of the 1990s.

Politicians would also be suborned by the increased power of bureaucrats, such as happened during the ''managed democracy'' of the 1980s under ex-army chief Prem Tinsulanonda, now chief royal adviser and seen by the Thaksin camp as the coup mastermind.

But some uneducated voters in the northeast region said passage of the draft constitution would at least end long months of political stalemate and slowing economic growth and lead to elections the government has promised for December.

''I will go to vote on Sunday because I want to see prosperity and happiness in this country,'' said Ta Jamkratok, a retired farmer in Buriram, who said she could not read the 200-page charter handed out to every household.

''I haven't decided whether to accept or reject the charter.

I have to see what my neighbours say. But what I know now is everything has become more expensive and I don't know how my life will improve after the passage of the charter.'' REUTERS AE VC1207