Plan underway to screen Thailand’s no-confidence vote

Four universities and four free TV channels in Thailand are working together to find a way to screen this week’s censure debate for the public. The idea is to give the nation’s citizens a vote on each cabinet member’s performance from 6pm on Friday, the last day of the censure motion. The vote result won’t be taken into account, but it will provide some fun for the electorate and provide a measure of public feeling.

Eleven Thai MPs, including PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, are under a four-day censure motion which ends on Friday. The no-confidence vote will start on the last day of the censure motion and close on Saturday, July 23.

A group of academicians from four Thai universities – Thammasart University, the National Institute of Development Administration, Srinakharinwirot University, and Rangsit University – want to offer an online no-confidence vote to the public saying it will help promote public participation in Thai politics.

Four Thai TV channels – Nation, Thairath TV, Workpoint News, and PPTV – agreed to join the campaign and all viewers need to do is scan a QR code to access the online no-confidence vote on their programs.

To participate, people need only a smartphone with an Internet connection to scan the television QR code and vote for each cabinet member one by one. The voting system will be the same as a vote in Parliament. One phone or computer connection will be able to vote only once.

The vote will available from 6pm on Friday until 11am on Saturday, the same time as the parliament censure vote.

A professor from the Public Law Major in the Faculty of Law of Thammasat University, Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, is one of the public no-confidence vote promoters. He said the public vote is aimed to encourage political participation among people.

“The people’s voice won’t cause any legal effects in the parliament, but everyone will see and hear those voices.”

This is the first time that Thailand has had an unofficial online no-confidence vote for the public during the censure motion.

An announcement on how to access the QR code will be made soon.

SOURCE: WorkpointTODAY