Record breaking! Bangkok has highest turnout in voter history

The 2023 General Election witnessed the highest voter turnout in Bangkok’s history. According to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), over 74% of eligible voters cast their ballots in the election yesterday.

Representatives from the BMA announced the unofficial election result from 6,360 polling stations in Bangkok in the early hours of this morning. Out of the 4,479,155 eligible voters, 3,339,664 exercised their right to vote, which accounted for 74.28% of the total voters. Among the total ballots cast, 1,191,989 were valid, while 48,694 ballots were invalid, and 98,981 voters rejected all candidates.

Furthermore, the BMA also revealed an unofficial top 10 party-list Member of Parliament (MP) in Bangkok. The top 10 included Move Forward Party (MFP), Ruam Thai Sang Chart, Pheu Thai, Democrat or Prachatiphat, Thai Sang Thai, Chart Pattana Kla, Thai Liveral or Seree Ruam Thai, Bhumjaithai, Palang Pracharath, and Thai Pakdee.

According to the unofficial result reported by ThaiRath, the top five party-list MPs for the entire country were MFP (13,479,745 votes), Pheu Thai (10,315,469 votes), Ruam Thai Sang Chart (4,476,464 votes), Bhumjaithai (1,079,766 votes), and Democrat (872,795 votes).

MFP’s popularity and policies led the party to win unofficially in almost every district of Bangkok except for the 20th constituency, Lat Krabang, where the Pheu Thai Party’s Theerarat “Aim” Samrejwanit beat MFP’s Chumpon Lakkham by just four votes.

Many voters in Lat Krabang, who monitored the vote count at the polling station, expressed curiosity about the victory and urged the authorities to recount the votes. However, the recounting process is under consideration by the Election Commission of Thailand (EC). So, the candidate must submit the request and evidence to the EC for further process.

According to Matichon, the MFP also won the districts where 80% of voters were soldiers. The party in second place in these districts was the Pheu Thai Party.

The polling stations closed at 5pm yesterday, and the counting process began immediately. Unofficial results from each station were announced progressively throughout the night. The EC had planned to release the unofficial results via a press release at 8.30pm yesterday, but it was later cancelled claiming that some polling stations were affected by heavy rain.

The official result will be announced by the EC within 60 days of the General Election. The first Parliament meeting will be held within 15 days after the result is announced.