Advance voting began at 8am today at polling stations throughout the country, with high turnouts being reported in many polling units, especially among young and middle-aged voters.
Voters can check which polling units at which they are to cast their ballots and their names in the lists of advance voters by logging into the website of the Department of Provincial Administration and can check the numbers of the candidates by going to the website of the Office of the Election Commission.
Many voters in Bangkok are reported to have turned up before 8am, for example at Bang Sue district office and the Thai-Japanese youth center in Din Daeng. At Bang Sue district office, voters were seen moving in a line which stretched from the mouth of Soi Kanprapha to the office, about 400 metres away.
In the restive southern province of Pattani, about 8,000 eligible voters, including many members of the military, have registered to vote in advance today. To prevent delays, transport was arranged to take troops to the polling stations to cast their ballots.
Security has been strengthened in and around the polling stations and along the routes which troops were using. Narong Klanwarin, chairman of the Election Commission, urged all advance voters to exercise their voting rights, adding that election officials are fully prepared to perform their duties.
About 2.4 million people have registered to vote in advance, including 139,535 Thais abroad.
