NAKHON PATHOM, Oct 23 (TNA) — Voters kept showing up to exercise their right in the by-election of Constituency 5 and the chairman of the Election Commission (EC) was satisfied with the by-election atmosphere.
Inspecting the by-election, EC chairman Itthiporn Boonpracong said it was organized smoothly and many voters were showing up and crowded some polling units. He advised eligible voters to arrive at their polling units before the by-election ended at 5pm, he said.
The eligible voters who did not turn out for the by-election had to report the cause of their absence to local registrars within seven days after the by-election date; otherwise, they would lose some rights, he said.
Mr Itthiporn believed that the by-election would not have any vote-counting problem like what had happened to the past election because ballots would be counted at their respective polling units and vote results would be reported in a conventional way, not through a real-time system. The EC learned its lessons from the past election, he said.
Boonruean Thaiwatthanatham, election director of Nakhon Pathom, said all 193 polling units opened and voters’ turnout should be at least 70%. The estimation was lower than the 76% turnout of the March 24 election because the by-election did not include advanced voting.
She expected unofficial vote results within midnight. Her office received five complaints about violation of the electoral law and EC officials were investigating them, Ms Boonruean said. (TNA)
