Both claimed that they were under the heavy influence of alcohol, and had unintentionally damaged their ballot papers.

In Lamphun, police detained Korakot Thamnasart, 40, of Muang district for allegedly tearing up his ballot.

An election official said that Korakot showed up at the polling station, checked his name on the list and received the ballot. He then asked officials about the numbers of some candidates and became angry after they refused to answer as they were forbidden by law to do so.

Korakot then allegedly tore apart the ballot, resulting in his arrest. He was charged with damaging the ballot.

Pol Colonel Pattanapong Kamkaew, the Lamphun police chief, said the suspect appeared to be drunk when he showed up at the voting station.

Meanwhile, in Nakhon Pathom’s Kampangsaen district, police arrested Winai Donpraipetch, 58, for destroying his ballot.

Police rushed to a polling station in Tambon Huaymuang and found Winai drunk. He reportedly told police he was drunk when he showed up at the polling station. “After I marked my ballot, I found that I had voted for the wrong candidate. So, I crushed the ballot paper and was about to throw it away when officials saw my action and alerted police,” he claimed.

He was charged with damaging the ballot.

If found guilty, both of them could face a jail term of not more than five years, a fine not exceeding Bt100,000 and lose their election rights for 10 years.

Winai Mukdaharn, who works in a beer factory, filed a complaint with police at Muang Pathum Thani Police Station after learning about the fraud.

He said in a telephone interview that he went to a polling station in the Bangkuwat Ban Aua-arthorn community in Muang district with the intention to exercise his right. However, officials informed him that he had already voted. When they checked the signature in the namelist, signed by another “Winai”, he found the signature was not his.

The officials advised him to register a complaint with police. He was allowed to vote after that.

Winai said he lost his identity card last year and made a new one. He had notified police about the loss.

Police will investigate the claim by reviewing security camera footage at the polling station and interviewing election officials at the station.

Sukul Chunting of Muang district, however, said he had accidentally damaged the ballot because he was heavily drunk.

Sukul showed up to exercise his right at a polling station in the province’s Muang district but after he received the ballot and was about to vote, he reportedly damaged it.

He was brought to Muang Samut Songkram Police Station and a blood test on him found the alcohol level in his blood as high as of 258 milligrams per cent.

He told police that he had started drinking at 5pm on Saturday and drank throughout the night. “I was opening the ballot paper when I accidentally damaged it as my hands were shaking. I had no intention to damage it,” he said. He was charged with damaging the ballot, the punishment for which is a jail term of not more than five years and a fine not exceeding Bt100,000. If found guilty, he could also lose his voting rights for 10 years.

He said the 92,320 polling stations nationwide were ready for the country’s more than 51 million eligible voters.

“I call on all Thais as well as officials to be mindful of King Rama X, who expressed his concerns about the election and choose good people to manage and move the country forward. I want everybody to exercise their voting rights while keeping the Royal announcement in mind,” he said.

Many people showed up at Samut Sakhon’s District 2 polling station in Krathum Baen district since early morning, even before the polling station opened, to cast their votes in the first national election in eight years. But many of the early voters, mostly elderly citizens, pointed out that the parties’ names and logos on the ballot papers were too small and made it difficult for them to select and mark their preference.

Surapong Luangrattanakorn, a 64-year-old from Krathum Baen district, said it took him at least five minutes at the booth to find his preferred party on the ballot paper, as the name and logo of all the parties were too small and cluttered.

“Even though I knew the number of my preferred party before going to cast my vote, I found all the names and logos jumbled together. So, it took me some time to identify the party of my choice in the booth,” Surapong said.

Though he took the trouble to double check the name and logo of the party that he had selected on the ballot paper, he admitted he was not a 100 per cent sure that he had marked the right box.

“I think one of the reasons I was nervous in the booth is this is the first time in eight years that I had a chance to vote in a national election,” he said.

Surapong did not reveal the party of his choice but said he had decided to vote in this election because he did not want the country to slide back into political chaos again, as it would be bad for his business.

“I’d like to see the country progress smoothly without political turmoil that hinders economic growth,” he added.

The formerly stateless man, born in Thailand of Burmese descent, cast his ballot at a polling station at Wat Changthong in Muang Chiang Mai.

Mong, 21, posted a photo on Facebook of his identity card and his queue ticket.

“I already exercised my right,” he wrote, adding the hashtag “#Election2019”.

The post garnered plenty of “likes” and comments, most congratulating him on his debut as a Thai voter.

Mong was promised citizenship after winning an international paper-plane competition in Japan in 2009, but no government followed through until last year.

His “forgotten” status made headlines after the dramatic Tham Luang Cave rescue in Chiang Rai last summer, when the three young footballers and their coach who were also stateless were granted citizenship.

Mong renewed his appeal and this time got what he’d been promised.

Many people showed up at their polling stations in Chiang Mai and Lamphun provinces wearing face masks to protect themselves from fine dust in their air.

Provinces in the North have seen a sharp increase in fine particulate matter, PM2.5, blamed mostly on widespread burning of fields ahead of the next farming season.

Voters sporting face masks were asked to remove them temporarily to identify themselves at their polling station.

Lamphun Governor Attasit Samphanrat, who was seen wearing a face mask, advised voters – especially those with health problems – to protect themselves from the pollution.

He also called on eligible voters to turn out in great numbers to help retain Lamphun’s record of having the highest voter turnout in the country. In July 2011, Thailand’s last general election, Lamphun boasted a voter turnout of 88.6 per cent.

In Chiang Mai, people of all ages, including those suffering from illnesses, wore protective masks and came out to vote.

Baan Nam Sum is Chiang Mai’s Constituency 2.

Some of the voters had to provide their fingerprints instead of their ID cards to register to vote.

Voters who cannot read or write Thai were helped at the polling station by officials who are fluent in the Hmong language.

Four four-member teams wearing pale-blue vests were assigned to polling stations in Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani to monitor the electoral process, according to a UN official.

The teams are watching for any issues that might occur as citizens freely exercise their democratic rights.