Unprecedented 72% turnout for latest poll

Published on February 10, 2005

Sunday's general election has made it into the record books with the highest voter turnout in Thai history, the Election Commission (EC) said yesterday.

Nationally, average voter turnout was a record 72.3 per cent. The figure is unofficial, based on the 329 constituencies that have completed vote counting.

The average turnout in Bangkok was 72 per cent, also a record high.

A total of 44,846,472 people were eligible to vote in the country’s 21st general election, said Ekkachai Varunprapa, secretary-general of the EC. In the general election in 2001, voter turnout was 69.9 per cent.

The province with the highest turnout this time was Lamphun, with 89 per cent. The southernmost provinces also had high voter turnouts with Narathiwat clocking up 71.6 per cent, Pattani 73 per cent and Yala 75.1 per cent.

An unexpectedly high number of residents cast their votes in Bangkok. The capital, which recorded the lowest turnout nine times since the country’s first election in 1933, clocked in with 72 per cent.

Bangkok recorded just 66.69 per cent in the previous election and 49 per cent in the 1996 election. Ekkachai said invalid votes accounted for only 5 per cent, down from 10 per cent four years ago, with abstentions at 3.35 per cent.

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