Eligible Thai voters living abroad can cast their votes between April 25-May 5, ahead of the May 14 election, with the actual voting date to be fixed by the Thai embassy or consulate in each country, Election Commission (EC) secretary-general Sawaeng Boonmee said on Monday.
Cooperation between the EC, Thailand Post, the Foreign Ministry's Department of Consular Affairs, Airports of Thailand and Thai Airways International will see the ballot papers delivered in diplomatic pouches or by embassy officials who will hand them directly to the EC by May 9, he said.
They will then be forwarded to the 400 constituencies, depending on where each voter is registered, for safekeeping. They will be counted at the same time as the ballots cast at polling stations on May 14, he said.
However, Mr Sawaeng said the EC was informed by the Foreign Ministry that there might be some problems with voting in Sudan in northeast Africa, where a civil war is going on.
In a statement, the EC also said a total of 128 committees had been set up to examine and investigate petitions disputing election results as well as 88 intelligence teams to gather information for the EC probes.
About 400 rapid deployment teams have been set up for the prevention and suppression of election fraud and to arrest and detain people suspected of violating the election and political parties laws. Their area of operations will cover all 77 provinces.
A centre has been set up to coordinate investigations and receive complaints about election fraud and people are encouraged to use the "Ta Sapparot" (pineapple eyes) app to report suspected vote-buying. The app can be downloaded on both the IOS and Android operating systems.
Meanwhile, Pheu Thai wants the EC to probe a mix-up found in a candidate list distributed to overseas voters by the Thai embassy in London. Chanin Rungthanakiat, deputy party spokesman, said the candidate information document contained a mistake involving the party's candidate vying for a House seat in Bangkok's Constituency 11.
He said a photo of a rival candidate was used with the Pheu Thai candidate's name and number.
