BANGKOK, 6 February 2014 16.57% of ballot papers from the past Sunday’s general election were handed in with the choice of ‘no vote’ checked on them, according to the Election Commission (EC).
Sunday’s election took place in 68 provinces; the polls could not be held in 9 provinces in the South.
There were 43,024,042 eligible voters. 46.79% of this number or 20,129,976 people cast their ballots. There were as many as 2,425,673 ballot papers, or 12.05% of the total, that were not valid. 3,335,334 persons marked ‘no vote’ on their ballots.
In the Northern Region, 56.02% of eligible voters attended the polls and 21.18% of this group marked ‘no vote’. In the Central Region, 41.04% of eligible voters cast their ballots; 23.31% of this group opted for ‘no vote’. In the Northeastern Region, 55.31% of eligible voters took to the polls; 9.56% selected ‘no vote’. In Bangkok, only 16.78% of eligible voters cast their ballots; 24.02% of this group marked ‘no vote’.
Chiang Mai was the province which had the highest turnout, at 75.05% of eligible voters. Lamphun and Mae Hong Son came in second and third, respectively.
