BANGKOK, June 27 — Election Commission (EC) secretary-general Suthipol Thaweechaikarn on Monday admitted that there were some technical glitches in the advance election on Sunday as slightly over 50 per cent of eligible voters who had registered for advance voting exercised their rights.
Mr Suthipol said the advance election nationwide was run smoothly in general, with some 1.49 million voters or 55.6 per cent of some 2.6 million voters who had registered for advance voting outside their constituencies casting their ballots. Meanwhile, some 90 per cent of voters who registered to vote in advance at their constituencies exercised their rights.
However, the EC secretary general said that the main problems found were the voters could not vote in time when the polls closed at 3pm as many voters had registered for advance voting, while some other voters’ names went missing.
Mr Suthipol said the EC would discuss the problem and work out the solution.
The EC was also confident that there would be no problem in the process of transporting the ballot boxes back to the provinces for counting on the election day on July 3.
Meanwhile, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) Permanent Secretary Charoenrat Chutikarn said in Bangkok alone, 1,079,923 persons who had registered for advance voting and 631,513 or 58.48 per cent cast their ballots in advance at 50 districts of the capital.
At Bangkapi district where 104,016 people registered for off-constituency voting in advance, the highest number in the country, 59,913 or 57.60 per cent of the voters turned out to vote.
While advance voting in constituency, 35,037 had registered and 31,144 or 88.89 per cent cast their ballots.
The highest turnout in Bangkok districts was at Bangkhen, where 1,199 persons or 87.17 per cent of the 1,367 registered voters cast their ballots. (MCOT online news)
