Election agency’s preparations ‘better than it was for 2019 poll’
The Election Commission (EC) is better-prepared to hold the general election on Sunday than it was in 2019, a member of the poll agency said on Friday.
Thitichet Nuchanat said the EC has dealt with the mistakes that occurred during advance voting on May 7, such as incorrect addressing of envelopes due to a misunderstanding about constituency code.
He added that vinyl boards will be set up at polling stations to enable voters to check details of MP candidates.
May 14 will be a day when people will use their election rights after four years, he said.
He confirmed that no invisible ink pens will be used at polling stations, saying that officials have been instructed to check the pens every hour and immediately replace ones with defects.
He advised voters to raise their hand to draw the attention of officials or use another one from a nearby booth if they found themselves with defective pens.
“Those kind of problems [encountered during advance voting] will not happen on May 14," he assured, "We would like people to be confident that the EC is better prepared to hold the election on May 14 when compared to the previous election in 2019."
Thitichet said more than 90,000 polling stations have been set up nationwide to facilitate 52.51 million voters to cast their ballots, adding that 3.28 million of them would be first-time voters.
We believe that at least 85% of voters will cast their ballot in the upcoming election, he said, adding that 91% of advance voters had cast their ballots on May 7.
He advised voters to cast their ballots early so as to avoid traffic jams.
Thitichet warned people to avoid violating election laws, such as photographing the ballot, tearing the ballot, betting on the election result and publishing poll surveys seven days before the election.
Voters should not wear clothes with numbers or names or logos of a political party when going to the polling stations, as it could be considered campaigning, he added.
