As many as 2.5 million eligible voters have registered to vote in advance of the March-24 general election, Election Commission secretary-general Jarungvith Phumma disclosed on Tuesday.
He said that the number of registered early voters – 2,348,168 who live in Thailand but want to vote outside their constituencies and 112,165 who live overseas – has surpassed the EC’s expectations, reflecting the wishes of the people to participate in this election.
Early voters who live in Thailand are required to cast their ballots in the districts where they registered on March 17th while overseas voters can vote from March 4th to 16th.
The five provinces with the highest numbers of registered early voters are:
Bangkok 829,450
Chon Buri 194,369
Samut Prakan 145,582
Pathum Thani 117,869
Nonthaburi 85,648
As for overseas voters, Australia came top with 14,926 registered advance voters and Senegal came last with just 10 voters.
The March-24 election, which was postponed five times, is the first in Thailand since the military coup on May 22nd, 2014 which was led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, now the Prime Minister, to topple the elected government of then Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of the pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai party.
