By Xinhua
Bangkok : The first general election after last year’s military coup that ousted elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra kicked off at 8 a.m. (0100 GMT) Sunday across Thailand.
A total of 45 million eligible voters are expected to cast their votes at 88,500 polling stations, 157 constituencies around the country, to elect 480 Members of Parliament (MPs).
Many voters arrived early on Sunday at the polling stations ahead of the official start to wait in line for registering.
Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont casted his vote at the No.20 Constituency in Payathai district, Bangkok, where more than 100reporters and photographers had been waiting since 7 a.m. (0000 GMT) for the premier to appear.
Surayud was appointed to head the interim government after the military top brass launched a military coup to oust the Thaksin administration on Sept. 19, 2006.
Cameras are also focusing on the two leading runners, and rivals, in the race — the People Power Party (PPP) leader Samak Sundaravej and the Democratic Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Both are contesting as party-list MP candidates in Bangkok, and the candidates for respective parties to become the next prime minister.
Samak showed up after 9 a.m. (0200 GMT) at a polling station on Navamin Road, Bungkum district in Bangkok, while Abhisit cast vote at a school on the Sukumvit Road.
Earlier public opinion polls have put the PPP, seen as a nominee party for the ousted premier Thaksin, on top of the 39 contesting parties, followed by the Democrat Party, the oldest political party in Thailand.
Most of the votes for PPP are expected to come from the North and Northeast, residence for the majority of Thailand’s rural poorand the strongbase for Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai party, which was disbanded after the coup.
The Democrat Party traditionally enjoys support among urban elite and voters in the South.
A high turnout is expected in Sunday’s voting, as many Thais hope the election would return the country to “democratic rule” with a new elected government, after being run by a military-appointed administration for 15 months.
A record high number of over 2.9 million voters turned up to cast votes in the advance and absentee voting on Dec. 15 and Dec. 16
The balloting will close at 3 p.m. local time (0800 GMT). The initial results would be announced at around 9 p.m. (1400 GMT), said Election Commissioner Prapun Naigowit on Sunday before the voting started.
King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej signed a royal decree on Oct. 19 to set Dec. 23, 2007 as the date for general election.
The EC have designated the 76 provinces in the whole country into 157 constituencies and eight zones.
There are 480 Member of Parliament (MP) seats in the House of Representatives up for grab. 400 of them are called constituency MPs, who will be elected directly throughout the 157 constituencies. The rest 80 are party-list or proportionate MPs, 10 for each of the eight Zones.
Voters will get two ballot cards, one for the party-list MPs voting and the other for constituency-based MPs, to put into two separate ballot boxes.
For constituency MP election, a voter can mark for one to threeMPs standing for his or her home constituency.
For party-list MP election, a voter shall cast a vote for a political party running in a designated zone. The more votes a political party receives, the more seats a party shall have in theparliament.