Thai constitutional referendum, 2007

Thai constitutional referendum, 2007
Do you approve or disapprove of the draft constitution?
Cover of draft distributed to all households
Date	19 August 2007
Results Votes  % Approve 14,727,306 7001578100000000000♠57.81% Disapprove 10,747,441 7001421900000000000♠42.19% Valid votes 25,474,747 7001980600000000000♠98.06% Invalid or blank votes 504,207 7000194000000000000♠1.94% Total votes 25,978,954 100.00% Registered voters/turnout 45,092,955 7001576100000000000♠57.61%
Results by provinces   Approve     Disapprove
On the map, the darker shades for a colour indicate a larger margin.

A referendum on the new constitution was held in Thailand on 19 August 2007. Had the draft been rejected, the military government would have had the freedom to choose any previous constitution to adapt and promulgate instead. The turnout was around 60%.

Major changes in the proposed constitution included the following:

The military government announced that each household in the country would be sent a copy of the new constitution ahead of the referendum. A poll from July had seen a majority of voters in favour. However, in many cases "yes" votes were not real indicators of support for the new text but rather for quick elections, as the ruling Council for National Security (CNS) has stated that approval of the new constitution was a requirement for holding parliamentary elections later that year.

There were considerable differences in the approval rates between the regions of Thailand. In six provinces of Southern Thailand (Chumphon, Trang, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Songkhla, Surat Thani, Ranong), the approval topped 90%. On the other hand, in 24 provinces in Northern and Northeastern Thailand there was a majority against the draft. In two provinces in the far Northeast (Nakhon Phanom, Roi Et), the rejection even topped 75%.