More than 70,000 Thai nationals have registered for advance voting abroad for the May 14 general election, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ruj Thammongkol, director-general of the Department of Consular Affairs, said the registration for overseas voting began on March 25 and will wrap up tomorrow.
He said 72,779 Thais had registered as of Friday.
This compares to 119,313 who did so before the 2019 general election, with most being based in Australia, China and the United Kingdom. They were followed by Thais who sent their votes from Japan, Germany and Malaysia.
The ministry has issued announcements about the advance registration on numerous channels in a bid to notify eligible Thais in foreign countries to exercise their right to vote.
Those who have trouble registering can contact a Royal Thai Embassy or their nearest consulate.
Each embassy and consulate will decide how to conduct the votes, such as on-site polling booths or having the votes mailed by post, based on local conditions. All of the ballots will be counted in Thailand. To ensure they all arrive in the country on time, an Open Vehicle Monitoring System (OVMS) will be used to track them.
For Thai voters in New Zealand, all of their ballots will be sent to Sydney, Australia, as a transit point to Thailand via Thai Airways.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) said that anyone in Thailand eligible to cast their vote in advance on May 7 must register with their district and local registrars or via the "ThaID" mobile application of the Department of Provincial Administration by tomorrow.
