diff --git a/bin/get_constit_mapit b/bin/get_constit_mapit
index bed0f48c97..32c794b430 100755
--- a/bin/get_constit_mapit
+++ b/bin/get_constit_mapit
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ my $data = decode_json($json);
 my $sch = TwittElection::Schema->connect(
   'dbi:mysql:twittelection',
   $ENV{TE_USER}, $ENV{TE_PASS},
+  { mysql_enable_utf8 => 1 },
 ) or die;
 
 my $con_rs = $sch->resultset('Constituency');