BANGKOK, March 24 (TNA) — Ittiporn Boonpracong, chairman of the Election Commission (EC), thanked voters who exercised their rights as they made a 65.96% turnout out of about 51 million eligible voters.
He said that the election ran smoothly from 8am to 5pm and 90% of ballots were counted. He also said invalid ballots formed 5.6% and ‘vote no’ 1.5% of 51,205,624 eligible voters.
He received a report on 28 violations to the electoral law including offences of tearing ballot papers and taking photos of marked ballots. Besides, there were 90 complaints on electoral violations and 35 allegations about wrongdoing by electoral officials through the hotline number 1444. Election inspectors reported seven violations to the electoral law. The EC would investigate them, Mr Ittiporn said.
According to him, 101,004 people cast their votes outside the kingdom, forming an 84.7% turnout. Ballots from New Zealand were left at Thai Airways International’s cargo warehouse when polls closed.
The EC chairman said the EC would announce the unofficial 95% of polls results at 10am on Monday.
Phalang Pracharat party and Pheu Thai party were in close race as ballots were being counted. (TNA)
