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Published on December 17, 2007

The second and final day of advance balloting yesterday saw further confusion and allegations of fraud.

A group calling itself Tham-mapiban, or Good Governance, yesterday demanded deputy national police chief General Wichien Pojphosri, who is in charge of advance balloting, investigate alleged fraud in three Bangkok constituencies.

The group's deputy chairman Suthas Anantapong said it spotted buses transporting voters to the central balloting station in Constituency 7.

Election officials at the central polling station in Consti-tuency 6 broke the law by allowing unregistered voters to cast ballots without explanation, he alleged.

According to election law, voters who do not register for advance voting can cast ballots at the Provincial Hall, but are required to explain why they are voting in advance.

Suthas said buses transported voters to Constituency 5.

In Samut Sakhon, Arna Limcharoen, the 59-year-old owner of the Mahachai Muang Mai market, tore up two ballot papers after making a mistake

She said she did not intend to tear the papers but was angry with herself after she ticked the "wrong number" and was denied a new voting slip.

She was arrested and released on Bt20,000 bail.

The Election Commission is investigating the burning of a ballot paper in Roi Et on Saturday. Election commissioner Somchai Jungprasert said the incident was an "honest mistake" and not intended to destroy the paper.

Two major party leaders have asked the Election Commission to allow them to inspect the place where advance votes are being stored.

People Power leader Samak Sundaravej said he was worried about the possibility of fraud during storage.

"I don't know where the ballot boxes are being stored or the security measures. I trust the five election commissioners but other officials could be unreliable," he said.

Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said EC officials should allow party representatives to help protect the boxes.

Banned Thai Rak Thai executive Chaturon Chaisang said most advance voters in Bangkok were Northeast and North people. He believed they would vote for the same party but did not say which party would benefit from the advance ballot.

He expressed concern about the storage of votes. "If the EC fails to protect the box storage, it means there is a fraud in this election," Chaturon said.

People Power secretary-general Surapong Suebwonglee said he did not know which party would benefit from a high turnout in the advance ballot.

"We only hope the voting process will be fair," he said.

He said several factors would ensure the advance turnout was higher than in the last election. People were keen to vote because they wanted a return to democracy and, after the government announced December 24 as an extra holiday, people came out to cast advance votes in order to go on vacation this weekend.

He was concerned about security for the advance ballot. "It is a duty of the Election Commission to look after the boxes, as we know some districts invited party representatives to see storage places but some did not," he said.

Surapong said this election would have a lot of invalid votes because the party had received information that people who registered for the advance ballot had voted for candidates in their present constituency instead of candidates in their hometown.

Election commissioner Somchai Jungprasert insisted security had been tightened to protect ballot boxes.

He said the EC had not invited party representatives to inspect storage places because there were more than 60 parties, making it difficult for all to attend.

"The EC could not allow only major parties to inspect the storage. We are afraid of being accused of double standards. But they [parties] can send their people to observe our system," he said.

EC officials in Satun and Nakhon Si Thammarat said more than 80 per cent of registered advance voters came to the ballot.

In Mae Hong Son, an official believed about 75 per cent cast their votes.

In Samut Prakan, traffic was jammed for more than three hours by advance voters.