As many as 86.98 per cent of the 2.6 million registered early voters nation-wide turned up to cast their votes yesterday with only few minors hiccups reported in Thailand’s first general election in almost eight years, according to the Election Commission.

Commission chairman Itthiporn Boonprakong reported that in several provinces the turnouts were as high as 90 per cent.

He said 2.6 million people had registered for the early voting held across the country yesterday. And 86.98 per cent of them turned up.  Bangkok reported a turnout of 87.22 per cent.

“The turnout in general is satisfactory,” he said.

He said there were reports of three minor incidents during the voting.  In Uthai Thani province, a man was caught for allegedly using another person’s ID card to try to cast a ballot while in Samut Sakhon a charge was pressed against a man accused of stealing a stack of ballots which were found marked in favour of one particular party.

However, there were complaints of long queues at many polling stations.  Itthiporn said the Election Commission would draw lessons from yesterday’s voting to make sure that the general election March 24 will be smooth.