Phuket Governor Niran Kalayanamit came out this week and blamed Phuket’s low attendance (57%, not 51% as I reported earlier) at the recent national referendum on poor weather. Apparently, some voters arrived at polling stations and became so distressed by the rain (in the middle of Phuket’s wettest period) that they turned back and fled to safety, waiving their chances to vote!

Could it really be that a bit of rain affected the turn out at the national referendum? It is true that when it rains, everything kind of grinds to a halt in Thailand and people become complacent and forgetful. Regardless, 88% of Phuket voted in favor of the draft Constitution.

Flip things over to the northeast, and 63% voted against the draft Constitution. Did the weather have an impact in the North? Was it raining there? One can only speculate. You would have thought that for such an important event (Thailand’s first ever referendum), they would have held it over a period of more than one day… or at least been prepared for the rain in monsoon season.

At polling stations in Phuket, organizers had to put down planks of wood for people to walk on. It was a bit of a disaster really.

Techno’ tags: Thailand, Phuket