00:00This Sunday, February 8th, 2026, Thailand is returning to the polls once again.
00:05The nation is going to be choosing its representatives in Parliament.
00:08At the same time, we're going to be saying yay or nay to an even more major decision
00:13whether or not we'll be rewriting our entire constitution yet again.
00:17Arguably more important than who will be sitting in Parliament,
00:20Thailand will be deciding whether to keep the constitution that has proven so influential to its politics
00:25as we've just seen in the past couple of years.
00:28In tandem with the general election will be a referendum concerning a single question.
00:33Do you agree that there should be a new constitution?
00:37By voting no, the current constitution will remain intact,
00:40along with all the stipulations that have been shown to be able to undo public choices.
00:45Providing power to unelected groups like the 200 members of the Senate,
00:49the current military junta-drawn charter has allowed for less than democratically ideal developments in Thailand
00:55and is likely to remain a point of discussion, if not division.
00:59Selecting yes would really only be the first of many steps to realizing a new constitution for the nation.
01:05At least two more referendums would be needed to establish how the next charter would be written
01:10and friction can be expected at every turn.
01:13Even if the country were to say yes to a new charter,
01:16there's no guarantee that it will be written by whoever it chose to lead the next.
01:20What people will be choosing is whether or not the process can be initiated at all, not the end result.
01:26With Thailand's complicated relationship with democracy,
01:29what is really going to be at stake when people head to the ballot boxes?
01:33Is all the anticipation surrounding this vote justified,
01:36or will it be just an exercise in futility?
01:38Tune into The Signal across the nation's official channels as we dive deep into this investigation.
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