Absentee and advance voters turned out in unprecedented numbers totalling about 2.9 million votes cast, according to the Election Commission.

The turnout of absentee voters was 87.77 per cent amounting to 1.83 million ballots and some 1.12 million voters cast advance ballots on Saturday and Sunday, Election Commission member Prapun Naigowit said.

Bangkok ranked first both for absentee and advance ballotings. It saw 823,331 absentee votes, accounting for 91 per cent of 903,899 registered voters. For advance voting, 199,357 voters cast their ballots.

"The balloting process was satisfactory," Prapun said, noting that the EC managed to make the ontime delivery of extra ballots to some polling stations that encourtered shortages.

Ballot boxes for absentee and advance votings would be dispatched under tight security for counting on December 23 and political parties would be welcomed to designate their representatives to assist in safeguarding the boxes, he said.