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BANGKOK: Thais voted under tight security Sunday in by-elections that are the first test at the polls for new Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose party is hoping to shore up its shaky coalition.
Voting closed at 3:00 pm (0800 GMT) for 29 parliament seats, with both Abhisit's Democrat Party-led coalition and the opposition claiming they will grab up to 20 more places in the 480-member parliament.
Early results are expected later Sunday and Monday, Election Commission (EC) public relations director Ruengroj Chomsueb told AFP, adding that the day's polling mostly went smoothly.
"There were floods at two polling stations in Samut Prakan province and about 10 complaints of vote buying, intimidation and biased polling officials, which will be investigated by the EC," he said.
The Democrats lost elections in December 2007 to the People Power Party (PPP), which was linked to ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and came to office in a close parliamentary vote last month after a court dissolved the PPP.
That decision brought an end to six months of sometimes-violent protests against the PPP and Thaksin, which peaked with the crippling week-long occupation of Bangkok's two airports in late November.
The December 2 ruling by the Constitutional Court also banned scores of lawmakers from politics for five years because of vote fraud charges linked to the 2007 polls, triggering the by-elections.
Bangkok residents also Sunday voted for a new governor, with the Suan Dusit university exit poll showing Democrat Party candidate Sukhumbhand Paribatra taking the job after winning nearly 47 per cent of the vote.
The previous governor Apirak Kosayodhin - who is a deputy leader of the Democrat Party - quit in November just a month after winning a second term when corruption allegations emerged.
Deputy national police chief General Wichian Potphosri said that more than 34,000 police had been deployed at polling stations for the by-elections, with the army and navy also helping out in some provinces.
Alcohol was banned for the day in areas where voting was held, with authorities cautious following months of political turmoil and protests by royalist anti-Thaksin group the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD).
Of the 29 seats up for grabs, 13 were held by the now-defunct PPP - which has regrouped in opposition as the Puea Thai party - and 16 were held by its then-allies in the Chart Thai party, which was also disbanded.
Local media reported Democrat Party Secretary General Suthep Thaungsuban as saying that their coalition hoped to win 20 of the seats.
But Puea Thai spokesman Pormpong Nopparit said they were also optimistic, telling AFP: "We hope at least to keep our 13 seats, and add five more."
Abhisit came to power in a tense parliamentary vote on December 15 after a number of former PPP lawmakers and smaller parties including the reformed Chart Thai defected, giving the Democrats a slim majority.
But supporters of the PPP and Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and lives abroad to dodge jail on graft charges, feel robbed of their democratic rights and have already launched protests against the new government.
Thailand remains deeply divided between those loyal to Thaksin and elements of the old power cliques in the military, palace and bureaucracy who felt threatened by his huge popularity with the rural poor.
The urbane, Oxford-educated Abhisit has so far failed to make a dent in Thaksin's support base in the north and northeast. The Democrat Party count Bangkok and the south as their strongholds. - AFP/ms
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