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Published on December 23, 2007

As Election Commis-sion and government officials get set for today's election, al-most 160 alleged cases of election fraud are being investigated.

All 88,500 polling stations nationwide will today open at 8am and close at 3pm. The voter turnout is expected to be more than 70 per cent.

Unofficial results of the post-coup election should be available by midnight.

Commission secretary-general Suthiphon Thaveechaiy-garn said the agency had received a total of 742 complaints of election fraud, including 507 of vote buying and 79 of impartial state officials.

However, 585 complaints were found to be groundless.

Deputy Prime Minister Sonthi Boonyaratglin encouraged voters to get out and vote and to vote for good people.

Sources said Sonthi, who led the 2006 coup, had departed Bangkok for the Chiang Mai province yesterday to see a trusted astrologer, following speculation there could be chaos after the polls.

Meanwhile, Maj-General Amnuay Mahapol of Police Region 3 said nine officers had been transferred from several lower-Northeast provinces as a result of allegations of impartiality.

"In Nakhon Ratchasima a villager complained to police that a political party was buying votes for Bt100 each," Amnuay said.

In Northeast's Buri Ram, a local government official in Phlubphlachai district also faces charges of intimidating villagers on behalf of a political party.

National police spokesman Lt-General Pongsapat Pongcharoen said two policemen would be stationed at each polling station until voting closed.

Police will direct traffic near polling stations and help electoral officials transport ballot boxes following the tallying, he said.

"All police stations are alert to campaign violations and unanticipated incidents in order to ensure uninterrupted balloting," he said.

More roadblocks will be established, and patrols across the country will be on the lookout for vote-buying, as well as crimes by those seeking to take advantage of voters leaving their homes unattended.

Commission member Prapun Naigowit said about 20 cases of vote-buying, including an incident in Maha Sarakham reported by the People's Network for Elections, or P-Net, were being investigated.

Prapun had no details about speculation that money destined for vote-buying had changed hands at casinos in Poipet, just over the Cambodian border.

"If the commission can uncover evidence to prove this, then culprits will be penalised, even though the wrongdoing took place abroad, because it was meant to tamper with the Thai electoral process," he said.

In the capital, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said the unofficial outcome of direct voting should be known by 8pm.

The computation of proportional votes will take

longer because it includes ballots cast in Samut Prakan and Nonthaburi.

Vote counts will be broadcast in real time at City Hall, district offices and public places, it said.

In Phichit, resident Sannoh Matchima, 66, complained to police that an unidentified man had assumed his identity to cast an absentee ballot in Bangkok last Saturday.

He said he had discovered his name removed from the list of voters for today's balloting because he had voted in advance.

In Kamphaeng Phet, the provincial election office was reviewing a compliant by villagers that People Power canvassers had offered them Bt300 each to vote for the party.

Northern P-Net leader Prapoj Srithes said he had alerted authorities to attempts to buy votes on the eve of balloting in Phichit and Sukhothai.

Prapoj produced buffalo tails as evidence of three among over 100 vote-buying cases in Noen Maprang district of Phitsanulok.

The tails, a delicacy for making soup, were given to villagers last week by canvassers seeking votes, he said.