The Election Commission has received more than 140 fraud complaints, mostly filed by candidates against their competitors, with most coming from the Northeast.

Pol Maj-Gen Ekkachai Waroonprapa, secretary-general of the EC, said 146 complaints had come in, mostly from candidates.

The northeastern region came first with 63 complaints, followed by Bangkok and the lower Central Region with 36 complaints each, the North with 20, the eastern region and the upper Central Region with 14 each, and the South with only three.

Another 400 unofficial complaints were also filed to the commission's call centre and they would be checked.

The EC yesterday talked to the chiefs of provincial election committees nationwide via video conference. The Samut Prakan election committee reported the arrest of a voter who unintentionally tore a ballot paper at a polling unit in constituency 4.

Pol Lt-Gen Wanchai Srinualnad, assistant national police chief for special affairs, said the police and military, with help from the Southern Border Provinces Peace Building Command, transported ballot boxes in the deep South.

In Chiang Mai, a hand grenade was found and defused on a roadside in Fang district near the Democrats' constituency 10 office, the EC said.

In Nakhon Ratchasima, gunmen fired at a vehicle owned by a party canvasser in Serng Sang district. No one was injured.

In Bangkok, 58 election law violation cases involving voters and poll staff have been filed with city police, including eight cases on election day.

Offenders in 26 cases faced legal action. The rest were being considered by police, said Pol Maj-Gen Kamol Kaewsuwan, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau and chief of the bureau's election monitoring centre.

Chomkhwan Chantharu, 55, from Thaweewattana district, Somchai Prikkaew, 55, from Banchan district and Mayuree Vechasilp, 76, from Din Daeng district were arrested for tearing ballots, but police decided to press no charges after finding the three had no intention to breach the law.

Thawatchai Noiphan, 40, a voter in Lumpini, filed a complaint with police after poll staff refused to let him vote. He said someone used his name to vote before he went to the polling station.

In Phaya Thai, Kanda Wanitwongwan, a staff member at the 28th polling unit in Phaya Thai-Ratchathawi constituency, was accused of casting a ballot twice. The case was reported to police by Monthien Duangrat, director of the Thai Rak Thai election coordinating centre.

In the same constituency, Democrat election director Yutthaphan Meechai filed a complaint that someone had set up a booth at Senarak flat on Ratchawithi 15 road to check the names of voters in what was believed to be a poll fraud attempt. At the scene, police found Pol Maj-Gen Somchai Pipitkul, director of Mongkutklao Hospital, who said the booth was set up to check hospital staff who went to vote.