Outcome of Thai election will be known by 10pm

Sun, Jul 03, 2011
The Nation/Asia News Network

THAILAND - Millions of Thai voters go to the polls today to decide which political parties and candidates deserve their trust to represent them and to run the country.

The Election Commission (EC) said yesterday that unofficial voting results were expected to be available no later than 10pm today, although there was concern that heavy rains today could affect voter turnout.

Election commissioner Prapun Naigowit yesterday said he was worried about the weather. It could be raining today so he asked eligible voters to cast their votes early.

There are 47,321,136 eligible voters in this election.

More than 180,000 policemen will be deployed throughout the country to ensure safety on election day, according to national Police chief General Wichean Potephosree.

He said police assigned to security duty at polling stations have to report about the overall situation starting with the transport of ballot boxes from district offices to the polling stations. The police also will be required to report results of the vote count to the National Police Bureau, which will forward them to the EC.

EC secretary-general Suthiphon Thaveechaiygarn said yesterday that the EC in association with the Royal Thai Police and the ad hoc Television Pool of Thailand had set up a centre to report election results at Parliament to help the media keep the public informed.

He said the Royal Thai Police would be in charge of reporting unofficial election results from every polling station across the country. Counting results will be reported to every police station, which would forward them to the EC.

The report will be classified into two parts. First real time reporting will be forwarded to the centre at Parliament. Authorities with a password will have access to see the results.

The second part is the unofficial election results will be sent to be published in the EC's websites and the Television Pool of Thailand to disseminate the information to the public.

The second report will be about 10 minutes later than the real-time reporting.

Election officials at every polling booth have been instructed to carry out their duties with neutrality. "They check each other and they must have ID cards stamped to prove their authority," he said.

There are 90,854 polling booths and 1.2 million election officials taking care of the voting.

Prapun added that those who had registered for advance voting but could not get the chance to exercise their right can vote today. However, those who registered to vote outside their constituency cannot exercise their voting right. The latter must inform authorities the reason they failed to vote otherwise they will lose their voting rights in the next election.

Alcohol sales are banned from 6pm yesterday to midnight today. Posting messages that carry content to promote and attack candidates or parties is also prohibited, including revealing opinion surveys until election day has passed.

The EC accepted 120 election complaints out of 400 that had been submitted. Most complaints concern vote-buying allegations and election officials were instructed to carry out their duties with neutrality.

Prapun yesterday said the EC was prepared to handle any issue that would arise from the flood situation in certain areas and the border conflict with Cambodia.

Contingency plans have been put in place in case some polling stations are flooded in such provinces as Nan, or in case there was renewed border fighting that would affect provinces like Si Sa Ket and Surin.

At a glance

• 47,321,136 eligible voters in this election.
• 183,629 police to provide law and order on voting day.
• 90,854 polling booths.
• 1,200,000 election officials
• 55.6% of 2.86 million people registered for advance voting voted last Sunday.
• 32.7 million voters cast ballots in previous election in 2007.
• 74.5% of eligible voters turned out in 2007.