Yingluck rejects charter, days before referendum

Former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday that she rejected a draft constitution sponsored by the generals who toppled her government two years ago, and would vote against it in an August 7 referendum.Yingluck’s party has already rejected the draft charter, as has the leader of its main rival, and she echoed their criticism of it as undemocratic.“Having followed the process and content of the draft all along, I see that it isn’t in line with democracy,” Yingluck said on her Facebook page.“Therefore I reject this draft,” she said, adding that she would vote “no” on Sunday.Yingluck, sister of populist former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was also ousted in a coup, was impeached last year by a junta-appointed assembly over a failed rice subsidy programme and banned from politics for five years.The military has said the proposed constitution will pave the way for a general election in 2017, and will ensure clean, stable politics in a country rocked by years of turmoil as former telecommunications tycoon Thaksin and his followers challenged the military and royalist establishment.Critics say it is aimed at constraining elected governments largely through an appointed upper house of parliament.A former member of parliament for Yingluck’s party and 10 other people were charged yesterday with sedition and criminal association after being accused of trying to spread misinformation about the constitution.Nineteen supporters of the Shinawatras were also charged yesterday for violating a ban on gatherings after attempting to establish referendum monitoring centres that they said were aimed at preventing vote fraud.