Elderly, drunk or mentally ill voters spoiled a small number of ballot papers on Sunday and cases of vote-buying were reported, but only to a limited extent and it was more subtle than in previous polls.
Jarungvith Phumma, secretary-general of the Election Commission (EC), said that 10 ballot papers were torn, with single instances reported in Ang Thong, Ayutthaya, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Pathum Thani, Samut Songkhram, Tak and Yasothon provinces.
"Most of those who damaged ballots were senior voters who marked them wrongly and then tore them because they believed that they could get another ballot paper. Some were drunk and others mentally ill," Mr Jarungvith said.
The EC received 157 electoral complaints and 57 of them concerned vote-buying, he said.
Ladawan Tantiwithayapitak, deputy chair of the Open Forum for Democracy Foundation (P-Net), said many political parties followed the conventional strategy, vote-buying, but did it carefully and paid only familiar people.
"People were taken to campaign rallies and received 200 baht each... Banknotes were attached under free meal boxes with elastic bands. Complaints about this came from many provinces in the Central Plains, the North and the Northeast, but vote-buying overall declined from past levels," she said.
