The Election Commission (EC) announced today that 58.45% of the 27.9 million eligible voters turned out to vote in the PAO mayoral elections in 47 provinces, while 56.06% of the 47.1 million eligible voters exercised their right to vote in 76 provinces across the country. Bangkok, as a special administrative area, has a separate election cycle.
EC Secretary-General Sawaeng Boonmee told a news conference that voter turnout this time was 4% lower than four years ago, adding that the EC had forecast a turnout of 65%.
There were 931,290 invalid ballots in the PAO mayoral elections, or 5.69% of the ballots cast. There were also 1,158,201 blank ballots, or 7.08% of all the ballots submitted.
For the PAO councillor elections, there were 1,488,086 invalid ballots, or 5.63% of the ballots cast, and 1,799,344 blank ballots, or 7.59% of all the ballots submitted.
The provinces with highest voter turnouts for the PAO mayoral elections were:
1. Lamphun, 73.43%
2. Nakhon Nayok, 73%
3. Phatthalung, 72.56%
4. Narathiwat, 68.42%
5. Mukdahan, 68.03%
The five provinces with highest voter turnout for the councillor elections were:
1. Phayao, 61.68%
2. Loei, 58.04%
3. Phetchaburi, 57.44%
4. Yasothon, 56.72%
5. Chainat, 56.63%
The EC’s secretary-general attributed the high numbers of invalid votes, about 5.6% of all the votes cast, to confusion among voters over the numbers of the PAO mayoral and councillor candidates.
Sawaeng said that by-elections for councillors will now be held in four constituencies, because some candidates have been found to be unqualified or the number of blank ballots exceeded the number of valid ballots.
The four constituencies are Wat Sing district in Chainat, the Muang districts in Trang and Suphan Buri and Sawee district in Chumphon.
To date, the EC has received 180 complaints related to election fraud and the handling of the elections.
