泰国大选提前投票受阻 当局寻求收复被占领区域

Large numbers of anti-government protesters began to surround polling stations in some districts of Bangkok and southern provinces early Sunday, in an attempt to oppose the scheduled advance voting for the Feb 2 national election.

EC secretary-general Puchong Nutrawong said Sunday morning that the advance voting in the North and the Northeast, except Surin, had been carried out.

In the South, the advance polling could be held in some provinces including Songkhla, Pangnga and some stations in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

He said the advance election could also been carried out in most of provinces in the Central region and in the East, except in Samut Songkram and Bangkok where the EC received reports that 18 districts out of 50, had called off the advance election.

Suthep Thaugsuban, secretary-general of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), called Saturday night for supporters to gather at 5am to prepare to move to close election stations in Bangkok’s districts.

As of 8am, election officials in several districts of Bangkok were unable to enter the polling stations, which were set up at locations such as schools, department stores and district offices.

Protesters used chain to lock the entrances of some polling stations, such as Ban Bang Kapi School which is used as a polling unit for some 80,000 people who had registered for advance voting.

PDRC protesters moved quickly from one polling station to another on learning that polling units in other districts were still open.

Most core protesters who lead the protests at each polling station have tried to say that the protesters do not oppose the election but only put “pressure” on election officials not to carry on the advance voting.

While the protesters have been successful in closing the polling stations in many areas, people shown up to cast their votes have complaints about the situation.

In the South, PDRC protesters were successful to close five polling stations in Trang since Saturday night so the advance polling there was also called off but protesters say they would continue to stay at polling stations until 3pm. There are a total of 2,028 people registered for advance voting in Trang but none of them had shown up as the PDRC protesters had announced earlier that they would close the polling stations.