general election exceeds the target at over 73%

BANGKOK, 3 July 2011 The Election Commission (EC) has concluded that the voter turnout for the 3 July general election exceeds the target at over 73%; however, there are over three million void ballots.

According to EC Secretary-General Dr Suthiphon Thaveechaiyagarn, over 97% of ballots were counted as of 22.00 hrs. There were 73.91% or 34,449,326 people coming out to cast their votes from total 47,018,625 eligible voters.

There were 5.75% or 1,998,170 void ballots in constituency system, and 4.84% or 1,679,290 in party-list system. There were 4.04% or 1,402,693 vote-no ballots in constituency system, and there were 2.74% or 953,057 vote-no ballots in party-list system.

The EC will investigate the causes of void ballots later on since the number is very high. Void ballots were reported the most in Mae Hong Son province, followed by Tak, Yala, Phatthalung and Pattani.

Lamphun province has the highest voter turnout, followed by Ratchaburi, Chiang Mai, Trang and Saraburi. Vote-no ballots were reported the most in Phuket, Ranong, Chumphon, Nakhon Pathom and Saraburi.

Dr Suthiphon stated that international observers from ten nations such as Australia, Malaysia, Bhutan and Cambodia all lauded Thailand for free and fair election arrangement, and they hoped that political parties and Thai people would accept the election result.

The EC will announce the official vote counting result again on Monday at 10.00 hrs for the rest of 3% uncounted ballots.