The Thai electorate go to the polls today in the most fiercely contested general election, between the conservative and liberal political camps, in recent times.
Altogether 70 parties are taking part in the race for 400 constituency MP seats and 67 parties are vying for the 100 party-list seats in the 500-seat House of Representatives. 6,679 politicians are standing for those 500 seats.
Among several tens of thousands who turned out this morning to cast their ballots were the Palang Pracharath party leader and prime ministerial candidate Prawit Wongsuwan, at a polling station in Wang Thonglang district, and Srettha Thavisin, one of the three prime ministerial candidates of the Pheu Thai party.
At many polling stations across the country, voters are reported to have begun queuing before the polls opened at 8am, eagerly waiting to cast their ballots.
At the Bang Khen district office in Bangkok, the electricity supply to the office was lost for almost all of last night, after a construction crane working on the Pink Line train project collapsed onto a utility pole, raising concerns over the security of advance voting ballots, which are being kept on the second floor of the office.
The district chief officer, Pisamai Ruangsilp, livestreamed images of a security guard in front of the room, where the advance ballots were being stored, on her Facebook page to allay the concerns.
Election Commission chairman Itthiporn Boonpracong, who went to a polling station in Phaya Thai district to cast his ballot this morning, told the media that the election has been running smoothly.
Anticipating a voter turnout of more than 80%, compared to 74.96% in the last election in 2019, he urged voters to exercise their voting rights.
So far, 163 complaints have been received by the Election Commission’s Office, 57 concerning vote buying allegations, 17 cases of alleged irregularities by election officials and the rest concern other allegations.
