Thailand's Chart Thai Party leader Banharn Silpa-archa predicted that Sunday's election will not produce a full House of 500 MPs because the Thai Rak Thai Party candidates might fail to win a minimum of 20 percent of total eligible voters in more than 200 constituencies nationwide.

Banharn said he believed results of Sunday's polling would almost certainly fall short of 500 MPs, prompting the Election Commission to hold by-elections in more than 240 constituencies, mainly in the Southern and Northern regions of the country to make a full House within a 30-day timespan.

Former Opposition parties, namely the Democrat Party, Chart Thai Party and Mahachon Party, had boycotted the general election, leaving the Thai Rak Thai Party candidates running virtually without serious competition nationwide.

Small, little-known parties are vying in token rivalry against caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai party.

The Chart Thai leader, who, along with his family members, exercised his right at a downtown polling station in his political base of the central province of Suphan Buri, was believed to cast no vote for any candidate, following his public speeches asking villagers to abstain from voting while none of his party members were contesting.

Source: Xinhua