Thai Voters Forged Early Ballots One Week Earlier than Election

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Many Thais lined up on Sunday in lengthy queues to vote early in parliamentary elections scheduled for Might 14.

Greater than 2 million Thais had registered for early voting out of 52 million eligible voters who’re aged 18 and above, in response to the nation’s election fee.

“I want to see change and enchancment in administration,” mentioned 51-year-old Gosol Pungtaku, one of many 800,000 Bangkok residents who registered for one-day-only early voting within the capital.

One other voter, 34-year-old Siriporn Namphet, mentioned she voted for change.

“Its like having seen what the earlier authorities has achieved and now hoping for a brand new administration to take over and govern extra successfully,” she informed Reuters.

The election might upset the established order after greater than eight years of a conservative pro-military authorities led by former military chief Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Prayuth, 69, who first seized energy in a 2014 coup and remained prime minister after the 2019 election that critics mentioned was rigged to favour the junta chief, a cost the federal government denied, is trailing far behind opposition events in current opinion polls.

Opposition Pheu Thai Get together, a populist group that gained 5 basic elections earlier than 2019 and was ousted by Prayuth within the coup, is main in most polls adopted by the progressive Transfer Ahead Get together.

The election is for the 500-seat Home of Representatives.

(Reporting by Napat Wesshasartar and Artorn Pookasook, writing by Panu Wongcha-um; Modifying by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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