BANGKOK — The Constitutional Drafting Committee (CDC) will formally ask the ruling military junta to organize a referendum on the new constitution, a spokesperson said.

The CDC, a body appointed by the junta to replace the charter dissolved after the May 2014 coup, reached a consensus on the question of a referendum after a two-hour meeting today, said Gen. Lertrat Rattanavanich.

Junta chairman Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha will have the final say on a referendum, 12 May 2015.

The committee will now submit its opinion to the junta and the Cabinet, both of which are led by coup leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, who will have the final say.  

According to Gen. Lertrat, the CDC agreed that as the highest body of law, the constitution requires "social consensus." Gen. Lertrat also noted that there was a referendum for the previous constitution, which was written after the 2006 coup. 

"In this [current] draft of the constitution, we focus on the participation of the citizens as our main principle," Lertrat told reporters. "Therefore, there should be a referendum."

Gen. Lertrat said the constitution will be considered legally "accepted" if more than half of the country’s eligible voters participate in the poll, and more than half the participants vote in favor of the charter. According to these conditions, at least 11.75 million people would need to approve the constitution for it to pass.

Other details about the format and options put forth in the referendum will be left to the junta to decide, Gen. Lertrat said.  

Asked whether he believes a referendum will derail the junta's "road map" to democracy, which calls for a national election in early 2016, Gen. Lertrat replied, "I don't think it will affect the road map, because some political parties said themselves that they can wait another year for an election."

Gen. Prayuth, who has neither endorsed nor ruled out a referendum, has expressed concern that the vote will push back the timeline for elections.

The junta’s charter draft has been widely condemned by pro-democracy activists and politicians on both sides of the aisle. Critics say the constitution cripples elected politicians with an uneven balance of power that favors appointed watchdog groups, whose members are historically allied with the traditional elite. The charter’s most controversial features include the establishment of a mostly-appointed Senate and the option for an unelected Prime Minister.

Some pro-democracy activists and politicians have proposed the junta organize a referendum that would allow voters to choose between the junta’s charter and the 1997 constitution, which was written by an elected assembly and is known as the “People’s Constitution” for its egalitarian nature.

Other activists in Thailand have campaigned for a referendum that would give Thais the chance to elect a fresh assembly of drafters to pen a new charter altogether.

In the referendum for the 2007 charter, which was also drafted by a junta-appointed council, voters were only permitted to accept or decline the document. Critics say that many voters reluctantly approved the junta’s charter out of fear that the undisclosed alternative would be worse.

Gen. Lertrat added that the CDC has also dismissed a suggestion by a member of the junta-appointed National Reform Council (NRC) that the junta to stay in power for two more years. 

PRACHUAP KIRI KHAN — Police have arrested a 63-year-old man who decorated his pick-up truck with dozens of wooden signs criticizing bureaucrats and calling on officials to follow "His Majesty the King's teachings."

Most of the rambling signs accuse bureaucrats of corruption, and urge them to follow the teachings of King Bhumibol, Thailand’s revered monarch. A sticker on the side of the car also demands authorities "return legal justice to Phra Thep," referring to Princess Sirindhorn, a daughter of His Majesty the King. Another sign condemned an unidentified "influence" trying to supersede the monarchy.

A car covered with signs criticizing local officials and urging them to follow the King's teachings, Hua Hin, 13 May 2015.

Police said they were forced to break into the truck and haul Khantichai Kampha out of his seat after he refused to get out of the vehicle in downtown Hua Hin.

Khantichai, a native of Petchburi province, refused to explain the signs, police said. He has been taken to Hua Hin Police Station for interrogation. Police said Khantichai was also distributing flyers with “inappropriate text,” prior to his arrest.

The flyers, portraits of the King and Queen, and a one-meter sword were found inside Khantichai's car.

The monarchy is a sensitive topic of conversation Thailand, where criticism of the Royal Family is punishable by up to 15 years in prison under the country's draconian lese majeste law. 

BANGKOK (DPA) — Thailand has called for a regional meeting to discuss the thousands of refugees, many from Myanmar's Rohingya minority, found on boats off several countries this week.

Senior officials from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia would participate in the May 29 meeting, the Bangkok Post reported, citing the Foreign Ministry.

More than 8,000 migrants were adrift off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday, posing a potential humanitarian crisis.

Most are thought to be members of Myanmar's ethnic Muslim Rohingya group, with many also from Bangladesh.

"The increasing complexity of the problem demands a multi-faceted approach," the statement was reported as saying. "Countries of origin, transit, and destination must work together to address the problem comprehensively."

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha had called for a summit, but other countries had opted to send senior officials, the report said.

Representatives from Australia, Cambodia, Laos, the United States, Vietnam and others would also attend, and observers had been invited from the UN High Commission for Refugees, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the IOM, the ministry statement was reported as saying.

The IOM's Jeffrey Labovitz said Thailand's recent crackdown on illegal migrants had deterred people smugglers already in transit from landing, leaving thousands of migrants stranded at sea.

Thailand has charged several officials and moved dozens of police officers to inactive posts following the high-profile discovery of mass graves in the south of the country, thought to be of migrants.

Bangladeshis and Rohingyas from Myanmar often attempt to migrate through Thailand en route to the Muslim-majority nations of Malaysia and Indonesia. Many are held in camps in Thailand until their family pay ransom for their safe passage.

YALA — Police say Islamic separatists torched six motorcycles belonging to civilians in the southern border province of Yala last night.

The vehicles were burned across Than To district, where police also found what appeared to be fake explosives planted by the road. Police believe local insurgents organized the incidents as part of their campaign to cause "daily unrest" in the region.

One of six motorcycles set on fire in Yala province on 12 May 2015.

The southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, and Pattani have been a hotbed of separatist violence for the past decade, with a shadowy network of insurgents staging near-daily attacks in an effort to secede the region and form a breakaway Islamic state.

Although most of the estimated 6,200 casualties have died in bombings and shootings staged by insurgent groups, Thai authorities have also been criticized for using excessive violence and violating human rights in their effort to combat the secessionist campaign.

Damrong Deesakul, chief officer of Betong district, said security officers have been instructed to increase patrols around public schools, which are opening this month.

Schools and public teachers in the region are regularly targeted by insurgents, presumably because they are viewed as instruments of the Buddhist state. Nearly 200 school teachers have been killed since 2004, and many now travel with a large convoy of bodyguards and soldiers.

Last October, six public schools in Pattani province were set on fire in a coordinated arson attack at night. The buildings were severely damaged, though no one was killed or injured. 

"Security officers, like armed village volunteer corps and rangers, and teachers and some parents will organize shifts to keep guard and maintain security around the school buildings," Damrong told reporters.  

Experts say the insurgency is mostly fueled by ethnic and religious differences. While the vast majority of Thailand is predominantly Buddhist, the Deep South is mostly populated by Malay Muslims who speak a distinct dialect and trace their ancestry back to the sultanate of Patani, which was annexed by Thailand in early 20th century.