Former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra casts her vote in referendum

Thai voters began casting their ballots in a referendum on the 2016 draft constitution and an additional question at 08:00 Sunday, with the current military government promising to hold a general election in 2017. The voting process would last for 8 hours and all 94,000 polling stations would close at 16:00. Of the 50 million eligible voters, the Election Commission was targeting a turnout of 80 percent. At one polling place in Bangkok, former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra cast her vote calling on Thai people to take part in democratic process. Yingluck was banned from politics for 5 years in January 2015 after a legislature found her guilty of mismanaging the rice scheme. FORMER THAI PM, YINGLUCK SHINAWATRA <<< "Today is very important day for Thailand. Because this is the way of democracy, so make sure that the people understand of the content (of the draft constitution). And then share the opinion (by) turning to the number of the voting. So this is very important because if you stay home it doesn't mean you involve in democratic way." 

Ahead of the referendum, polls suggested a small lead in favour of accepting the new constitution, but most voters remain undecided. Preliminary results were expected at around 8.00 p.m. ... 1300 GMT.