Advance voting for Thailand’s House of Representatives election commenced at eight a.m. local time on Sunday, enabling more than two million eligible voters who cannot attend the official polling day on February eighth to cast their ballots early.

The early voting period, which concluded at five p.m. on the same day, allows registered voters outside their home constituencies and those abroad to participate in the electoral process before the nationwide vote.

Each advance voter received two ballot papers: one to elect a constituency candidate and another to indicate their preferred political party, as part of Thailand’s parallel voting system for the five hundred-seat House.

The advance ballots will be counted along with those cast on the general election day, when an estimated fifty-two point nine million voters are expected to choose four hundred constituency representatives and one hundred party-list seats based on proportional representation.

The early voting initiative forms part of an electoral calendar set by the Election Commission following the dissolution of the House of Representatives in December last year and the announcement of the early election date.

As campaigning continues across the country, parties and candidates are intensifying their efforts to gain support ahead of the February eighth polls, which will also coincide with a national referendum on whether to begin drafting a new constitution.

With fifty-seven political parties contesting the House seats and dozens of nominees for the premiership, Thailand’s advance voters have delivered an early demonstration of civic engagement in what is expected to be one of the most closely watched elections in the nation’s recent history.