An 83-year-old woman in Nakhon Si Thammarat claimed she thought she had to deliberately destroy her ballot because she’d ticked the wrong party number.

“She actually asked the officials for a new ballot,” Deputy National Police Commissioner Pol Lt-General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said. Voters are allowed only one.

Srivara said that, in another case, a man thought he was supposed to tear the ballot along its folding lines.

“Police have already pressed charges against some people, but the Election Commission is handling most of these cases,” he said.

In Samut Sakhon, a reportedly inebriated Sukul Chunting, 52, was charged with deliberately spoiling his ballot. If found guilty, he could be jailed for up to five years or fined up to Bt100,000, as well as lose his voting rights for 10 years.

Sukul denied he intentionally damaged the ballot. “My hands were shaking so heavily when I opened the ballot that I accidentally tore it,” he said.

He was subjected to a blood test, which allegedly found his alcohol level to be quite high. Police claim he admitted that he began drinking at 5pm on Saturday and continued through the night.

Lt-General Srivara said people with records of mental disorder were involved in some instances of torn ballots.

Otherwise, he said, the first election since the 2014 proceeded smoothly without disturbance. No violence was reported at any polling station, even in the insurgency-plagued southern border provinces.

Nor were there any reports of political rallies being illegally held in the immediate run-up to the election, he said. The Royal Thai Police were prepared to respond swiftly if any prohibited activity took place.

“If political rallying takes place or there’s any disturbance, we will act fast,” Srivara said at midday yesterday. “There are sufficient facilities to detain anyone arrested, even if their numbers are in the tens of thousands.”

He said there were four complaints of vote buying, one about vote selling, six about violation of the prohibition on sale of alcohol, and seven complaints about voters taking photographs of marked ballots.

“There is also a complaint against a police officer over a lack of [political] neutrality,” Srivara said.

Srivara said the Technology Crime Suppression Division was monitoring the internet, alert for hashtags that might signal violations of the lese majeste laws and for betting on the election outcome.

Most seniors asked about their voting habits said they chose a party based on its prior performance and thus preferred established parties and MP candidates with which they were familiar.

Kornthip Eksamut, 72, casting her ballot in Bangkok’s Phasi Charoen district, said she and other members of her family were sticking with the Democrat Party, their choice in previous elections.

“Some members of my family are switching this time to the Phalang Pracharat Party, but most of us are still voting Democrat because we’re confident they’ll do honest work in Parliament,” Kornthip said.

She said she was “quite happy” with General Prayut Chan-o-cha’s performance “and would like to see him stay on as prime minister for another term”.

“But some of his current Cabinet members aren’t very honest, in my view, so I’m sticking with my beloved Democrat Party in the hope they’ll work with General Prayut and take the country in the right direction.”

Kornthip had heard younger people speak highly of Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and his Future Forward Party. She believed they must have good qualities to draw so much approval among youth, but she didn’t know Thanathorn well enough to vote for him.

A similar principle applied at the opposite end of the political spectrum for Prajeub Yimklib, a senior in Nonthaburi’s Bang Kruai district. She was once again voting for the Pheu Thai Party because she remains confident in its abilities and intentions.

“I admit that Thanathorn and Future Forward are appealing, but I still prefer Pheu Thai because I benefited from many of their good policies while they were in office,” Prajeub said.

“I hope Pheu Thai wins the election and forms the new government so they can come out with more good policies that truly benefit the people.”

While first-time voters are getting much of the media and candidate attention for their ability to swing the election outcome, the long queues of older voters at many polling stations in Bangkok’s suburbs attested to their keenness to participate and play their own crucial role.

In fact there were more seniors eligible to vote in this contest than young people – 10 million 61 years or older, representing 19.5 per cent of the total voting public, compared to 7.33 million voters age 18 to 25, or 14.3 per cent of the total.

BALLOTS CAST by Thais living in New Zealand last weekend did not arrive in time to be counted as part of yesterday’s tally.

Election Commission (EC) deputy secretary-general Nath Laosisawakul had earlier warned that advance ballots not shipped to Thailand before vote counting began yesterday would be declared void.

However, the commission backtracked after critics spoke up saying it should take responsibility for the misplaced ballots and tardy deliveries.

EC secretary-general Jarungvith Phumma admitted after polling ended yesterday and counting began that about 1,500 ballots from New Zealand would not arrive in time. He put the tardiness down to complications with air cargo and delays involving three airlines. These problems arose despite the ballots being shipped from New Zealand last Wednesday.

Jarungvith said commissioners would convene today to resolve the matter. “The EC will take responsibility,” he told reporters.

Ballot papers cast in the recent advance voting from overseas will be considered invalid if they are not delivered to their intended polling stations for vote counting before the general election’s closing time of 5pm, a senior election official said yesterday.

The last batch of ballot papers cast by Thai expatriates living overseas arrived in Thailand by air yesterday morning, EC deputy secretary-general Nath said.

He said those ballot papers would then be transported by Thailand Post to the constituencies of the voters for counting along with other votes cast yesterday in the final leg of voting.

There was a delay in the transport of the last cargo of ballots from abroad as an international connecting flight to Bangkok was missed, Nath said.

“We expect the last batch of cast ballots to be delivered by 5pm. The local EC officials and polling station officials are responsible for accepting the ballot papers [from overseas]. If the ballots are not delivered within the time frame set by the law, they may be considered invalid. This depends on the facts and the situation,” the senior EC official said.

Advance voting for Thai expats living abroad was held between March 4 and 16 at the Kingdom’s 94 embassies and consulates in 67 countries.

Out of 119,232 eligible voters registered for advance voting, 101,003 – or 84.7 per cent – cast their ballots. That was a new record for voter turnout in advance voting overseas.

The Thai consulate in Sydney, Australia, saw the highest number of voters for advance voting – 8,915 people, or 86.9 per cent of the 10,256 people registered.

That was followed by the Thai Embassy in London, which saw 7,213 voters turning out, accounting for 91 per cent of the people registered for advance voting.

The Thai Embassy in Tokyo was third with a voter turnout of 5,458, or 90.3 per cent, followed by the Los Angeles consulate (5,043 voters or 88.9 per cent), and the Canberra Embassy (5,042 voters or 85.1 per cent).