The Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) said this morning (6 January) that 2,410,425 people have registered for advance and overseas voting in the general election. 2,279,890 registered for advance voting, while 139,535 are voting overseas.

Meanwhile, 1,598,056 voters registered to vote out-of-constituency or overseas in the constitutional amendment referendum. 1,502,390 are voting early, while 95,666 are voting overseas.

The legal watchdog NGO iLaw noted that there is a difference of 812,369 between the number of people registered to vote in the general election and in the referendum. It noted that voters are still able to vote at their home constituencies in the referendum on election day, 8 February.

Concerns have previously been raised that voters are not given enough time to register to vote in the referendum, as the registration was only open for three days and fell immediately after the New Year holidays. Commenters on iLaw’s social media posts reported that they had difficulties accessing the registration website, and some said that they could not register in time because the website was down.

Despite demands from the civil society for the registration period to be extended, the ECT has refused to do so, claiming that it would affect administrative tasks that need to be completed before the election, such as compiling an electoral roll. ECT secretary-general Sawang Boonmee said during a press conference this morning (6 January) that the registration period cannot be extended and that it should only take each person 3 minutes to register, so they should have been able to register before the deadline they manage their time properly.

iLaw director Yingcheep Atchanon and political activist Sombat Boonngamanong also went to the ECT office this morning (6 January) to meet with Sawang. Yingcheep noted that some voters were accidentally allowed to register to vote early in the referendum in their home province even though this was not allowed. He said that an ECT official said that these voters would be allowed to vote in their home province, but that the ECT should send an official instruction to the ECT office in each province to ensure that there would be no issue when these voters come to the poll.