Transcript of the above video: 

So the elections coming up in Thailand are pretty big news. We saw the House dissolved December 12th of 2025, now last year. By the way, Happy New Year everyone and yes, we are back to full operation as of January 5th, 2026. (Correction) We very much appreciate the patience from both our clients as well as the public as we shut down from Christmas through to New Year's, or the first real working day which New Year's kind of fell weird this year; the 2nd. We didn't reopen just for one day. So we went all the way through to the 5th, but we very much appreciate the patience. It is very necessary. I have got to be honest with you. By the end of the year, everybody here in the office, we're very, very drained. It's mentally taxing to do what we do and to do it; the practice of law and really whatever it is in the legal profession, you have to be on your toes all the time. Be it US Immigration, Thai Immigration, Tax matters, Corporate matters, you've just got to be on your toes and ready to go. So I appreciate again, the patience by everybody we always do this. We shut down Christmas, New Year's, then we get back going for the first quarter. 

The first quarter in Thailand is intense. There aren't holidays during the first 90 days of the year here in Thailand, and that is when the most business I would argue gets done in this country. And it also coincides with tax season as well as oftentimes we see major new policies from Thai Immigration get handed down at the beginning of the year. Also in the US Immigration world, we see a lot of stuff processed through at the beginning of January as well, because the Americans are coming off of their holiday season as well. So again, pretty intense time January, February March but we are always happy to soldier on through that and we're looking forward to being of assistance but again thank you to everybody who has been patient. 

That said, the thrust of this video is talking about the Charter Referendum. Let me just jump in here. Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Referendum date officially set for same election day. Now first some background here. I was doing some videos talking about the Charter. There seemed to be some machinations going on politically within the Parliament even before it got dissolved. Mr. Anutin Charnvirakul, the current Prime Minister, seems to have prioritized this and frankly in what looks to me to be a very astute political move, has made all necessary arrangements to get this thing on the ballot sooner rather than later. So quoting directly: "The Referendum Day on the Constitution will officially take place on the same day as the general election, which is on February 8 this year. The Royal Gazette on Friday published a Government decision to set Feb 8 as the date for voters to cast another ballot on whether they favour the writing of a new Constitution to replace the present Charter. The Cabinet decision was inked by caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on December 23, 2025."

So for those who are unaware, I was doing videos. Again, there has been a lot of outside, in my opinion, frankly undue influence discussing some Thai politics recently. Most notably, I made a video recently where there was a CFR article that was talking about how the People's Party was pushing back against the Bhumjaithai Party with regard to some of this completely leaving out the analysis that it was primarily the Pheu Thai Party that was really stirring the pot if you will - there's another way to say that -  but in a less than helpful way; they were acting as opposition basically. 

Mr. Anutin, in a very astute move, legerdemain, sort of conjured this up politically, managed to get this thing through to get it set on the actual same election day as the general election that we're holding in furtherance to the dissolution of the House by Mr. Anutin and the calling of the election. As they noted as well in other articles, and I urge folks who are watching this video, go check out that article on Bangkok Post especially, and I know there's a very limited number of these folks, especially as this is an English speaking channel, but especially anybody who wants some information regarding registration for that vote because apparently there are different procedures associated with the Charter Referendum Registration as opposed to standard election registration. But that being said, Mr. Anutin seems to have pulled this off.

I think overall this is a pretty good move. We're going to get to that have these votes and see what Thailand thinks, not only about the overall political situation in terms of Parliament, but also with regard to this Charter which overall I think this is a win-win for Thailand in many ways. And also it shows some very, in my opinion, yet again, Anutin has shown himself to be a very astute politician and I thought and I made videos to this effect, that we might not see this come to pass due to the fact that it looked like People's Party wanted to bypass the Senate, and it looked like it was kind of up in the air but now lo and behold, yeah it has been published in the Royal Gazette so we're doing it. I think overall this is probably going to be rather good for the country, all things considered. 

February 8th is a red-letter day I would say here in Thailand. I think we're really going to get elections that give us a feel for exactly what the Thai polity is looking for in terms of leadership here in Thailand. And we're finally going to get some resolution with regard to the overall Charter issues. So I think that this is something positive overall. We will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.