About 2.1 million eligible voters, including 111,069 living abroad, have registered to cast their ballots in advance on May 7th, one week ahead of the general election on May 14th.
According to Election Commission (EC) Secretary-General Sawaeng Boonmee, 2,153,450 Thais registered between March 25th and April 9th to vote in advance adding, however, that the actual number may be higher, because online registration ended at midnight last night and there are a number of registrations by mail which are yet to arrive at the EC’s registration office.
He disclosed that the EC’s registration website and Smart Vote app experienced disruptions from about 8pm to 11.45pm,due to a last-minute rush for online registration.
He cited some of the problems encountered by advance voters, such as, after having completed the registration form, not being able to check whether their registration was recorded, while many had taken several hours to complete the registration process.
Many advance voters have tweeted or posted hashtagscomplaining about their inability to register and urging the EC to extend the midnight deadline.
The Foreign Ministry’s Consular Affairs Department has set up a situation room to coordinate with the EC, the Ministry of Interior, Thailand Post and 94 Thai consular offices and embassies abroad, to ensure smooth vote casting abroad, using the OVMS web application.
