More than 1.5 million people have registered for advance voting ahead of the March 24 general election while 85,000 people officially signed up as overseas voters, Election Commission (EC) secretary-general Pol Col Jarungvith Phumma said.
Tuesday was the last day to register for both. Despite it being a public holiday, district offices stayed open. Voters began registering on Jan 28.
They were able to register online until midnight.
Pol Col Jarungvith said the EC could not extend the deadline as it needed time to calculate the exact numbers in order to determine how many polling stations would be needed for advance voting.
More voters have registered this year than ahead of the last election, he noted.
Since Jan 28 the number of people registering for advance voting increased by a rate of more than 100,000 a day, he said, adding that the number of people registering to vote from overseas climbed by about 10,000 a day.
The latter group can cast their ballots from March 4-16. Advance voters have a deadline of March 17, regardless of whether they live in their constituencies or elsewhere.
