Last year, Sathon district assigned new housing identification numbers to registered voters in the Saint Louis area. According to Kraisorn Polsiri, the director of a polling station, 80 per cent of the area's residents reported some trouble finding their names at the area voting stations, and 20 per cent eventually left without voting at all.

"Because of insufficient communication between the registration office and the residents, this place has been a mess since this morning," Kraisorn said.

Kraisorn said some residents asked their neighbours about which station they should go to. Voters who once lived in the Saint Louis area but have since moved were also affected.

He said he and the other

election officers in the area

are mostly teachers and were asked to help run the election.

"The registration office should have alerted people about the new housing identification numbers prior to the election," Kraisorn said.

There was no registration officer at any election booth in the Saint Louis area.

At polling station number 21 around noon, an enraged Saint Louis resident admonished the officers at the booth for making him go back and forth to look for his name on the lists.

"The guy was shouting for almost 10 minutes, disturbing other voters. I had to call the police to calm him down," Kraisorn said.

Another female voter said she also walked back and forth between stations to find her name. She finally found it, but not before asking police to help.

Kraisorn said the political tension had put voters under a lot of pressure.

"They all came here to vote. But when they found all this confusion, they were furious. Those who didn't want to waste their time just left," he said.