The Election Commission (EC) has kicked off a campaign encouraging voters to exercise their rights in the nationwide elections of municipality mayors and council members on May 11.
The election regulator expects a 70% turnout on average, up from 66% in February.
Some provinces beat the mean during the last poll, however, with Phatthalung notably logging 83%, EC chairman Ittiporn Boonpracong said on Thursday.
To achieve this goal, the EC, together with the Department of Provincial Administration and Department of Public Relations, has launched a new campaign to raise public awareness and encourage voters to vote, he said.
About 65,000 people have registered as candidates, 4,500 to run for municipality mayors and the rest to race for seats of municipality council members, Mr Ittiporn said.
The verified list of eligible candidates will be published on Friday.
Voters will receive all the information about the municipality elections, including on verified candidates, in a handbook to be sent to their mailing addresses, he said. They can find more details via the EC's Smart Vote application and on the EC's website.
In all 76 provinces except Bangkok, the elections will be held in 2,121 municipalities, 348 of which will only elect new councillors as their mayors were recently chosen due to the positions being vacant, he said.
