A long queue of voters formed at the Thai Embassy in Kuala Lumpur yesterday for advance polling.
More than 4,000 Thais who work in Malaysia were on hand to cast ballots ahead of the March 24 election.
Sunpet Boonraeng, who works as a cook in Kuala Lumpur, said he’d waited about six hours to cast his ballot and was concerned that voters with homes and jobs outside the Malaysian capital might not be able to wait that long.
He said several elderly voters had fainted in the queue because of the hot weather and rain.
Sunpet criticised the embassy’s poor publicity about early voting. Many Thais only heard about it through word of mouth, he said.
Another voter complained about the way the ballot casting was handled, saying he’d been in the queue for more than four hours.
He suggested more polling booths to accommodate the turnout.
Yet another voter said he’d arrived at the embassy at 9am and was still in the queue outside the compound at noon.
Embassy officials said the polling stations would remain open into the evening, until the last ballot, and would reopen at 8am on Monday.
Election Commission secretary-general Jarungvidh Phumma said he had been informed of the problems at the embassy in KL and it was agreed a fourth polling booth would be added.
