The Thai Consulate-General in Los Angeles, United States has sent its first batch of cast overseas ballots back to Thailand. Meanwhile, the Department of Consular Affairs has expressed confidence all ballots will arrive in Thailand in time for the vote tally on May 14.
Thai consulate officials in Los Angeles have completed counting ballots cast by overseas voters in the United States and sorted them into diplomatic pouches. The first batch of shipment consisted of 1,406 sets of ballots.
The consulate officials had received the cast ballots from voters by post. The documents accompanying the ballots were inspected and the consulate general had registered each voter who exercised his or her vote. The ballots were then sorted to be shipped to the 400 electoral districts in Thailand. The consulate general in LA had allowed the Thai press to observe the ballot counting and shipping procedure for the sake of transparency.
Consulate officials said it emphasized to overseas voters to send their ballots to the consulate general as soon as possible even if the date passes beyond the deadline of May 2. The consulate general in LA is responsible for ballots cast from Thais in 13 Western US states. Another 4 batches of ballots will be shipped from here to Thailand early this month.
Department of Consular Affairs Director-General Rooge Thammongkol disclosed that overseas ballots from some localities have already arrived in Thailand. These include ballots from the Thai embassies in Prague, Kathmandu, and Kuwait, and the Thai consulate generals in LA and Xian, China. He expressed confidence that all overseas ballots will arrive in Thailand by May 12. (NNT)
