Word: referendums
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...more than three decades ago. After deposing Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless army coup last September, Thailand's ruling junta promised to restore democracy by the end of this year. Now that the new constitution overseen by the generals has won a 58% approval rating in a referendum on Aug. 19, the junta appears committed to carrying out its pledge to hold elections by year's end. But Thaksin, who has been charged with corruption, is in exile, living mostly in London, while top members of his Thai Rak Thai Party have been banned from politics after...
...Boonyaratglin reiterated that he had no interest in remaining in politics after elections were held. Earlier this summer, however, a junta aide hinted that perhaps Sonthi might throw his hat in the ring. The general hasn't committed so far. Still, after casting his yes vote in the constitutional referendum in the province of Lop Buri, Sonthi did let slip that if he were to run, this military stronghold where he was once posted as major-general would be the place he'd like to represent. But if Sonthi does enter the race, he could end up delivering the election...
...Abhisit proposes to fix that by amending the constitution should he assume the PM post. That could mean yet another referendum. "I have faith that the electorate will do what's right," he says, surprising words perhaps for a Bangkok patrician whose party was overwhelmed by Thaksin's populist tactics six years ago. Whatever happens, at least one former Prime Minister is confident about Thailand's future. "We're good at improvising," says Anand Panyarachun, who steered the nation during two separate stints in the early 1990s. "We may not be as systematic as some other countries in our democracy...
...these days Iraq's Kurds aren't feeling the love from anyone. Last week, America's ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said he didn't think that it would be possible to hold a referendum on the status of Kirkuk this year. Iraqi Kurds consider the oil-rich city of Kirkuk - which is currently under control of the central government of Baghdad - to be the "Jerusalem" of Kurdistan, stolen from them by a Ba'athist ethnic-cleansing campaign in the 1980s. The Kurds have made the return of Kirkuk a central precondition to their participation in a federal Iraq...
...buddy Fidel Castro might be more credible. But respected groups like the Carter Center in Atlanta have deemed his victories fair, the result of a remarkably incompetent Venezuelan opposition rather than rigged voting. And rather than ramrod the constitutional amendments by fiat, he'll put them to a national referendum. Just as there was a good chance that Chavez could have been ousted by the recall referendum in 2004, there is at least the possibility - one that would never exist in Castro's Cuba - that voters could reject his term-limit proposal as well...