Unlike previous elections, where I voted for the individuals who I thought should serve me in Parliament, this time I cast a vote just to preserve the rights I may need if the political situation takes a turn for the worse.

As many academics have said, this election is merely a process to reach a referendum on Thai Rak Thai Party leader Thaksin Shinawatra - whether he should remain as prime minister. To voters like me, we were a tiny part of that referendum in the hope that our actions will somehow diffuse political polarisation and bring peace back to our country.

I remember what a thrill it was when I voted for the first time in Chum Phae, a district in Khon Kaen. It was 1992, when memories of the Bloody May crackdown that left much anger and agony in the minds of Thais were still fresh.

I was so excited to show my support for the democratic process and was full of hope that I could help restore a tarnished democracy.

I went to the ballot booth early that day, unsure if there would be problems. I was so afraid that my vote would not be counted. After casting my vote, I waited patiently in front of the municipal building with my family and other residents of the district for the results.

When my chosen candidate failed to get elected as the representative of Chum Pae, I was not overly disappointed. I was elated with the voting experience and enjoyed the right to participate in the shaping of the politics that would affect the people of the country.

From that day, I have voted in six national elections, including the one yesterday. However, the sense of thrill I felt at my first election has gone. For I now better understand the political routine and have gradually become fed up with the results of each election. I started to doubt why we were even voting when vote-rigging had became so rampant and when most elected politicians were serving their parties and friends better than the citizens of the country.

Despite my doubts, I know that the right to vote is something of crucial importance that we must preserve. Unlike many countries, Thailand obtained its first constitution and fell under democratic rule without loss of life. But in the course of nurturing that democracy many lives have been lost. If we do not preserve the democratic process, then what will the loss of life be for?

The urge to vote strengthened when I was among a group of reporters who were besieged on the sixth floor of one of the four buildings in The Nation's compound by those ill-mannered men who called themselves members of the Caravan of the Poor.

It made me feel that if we were represented by politicians who put national interests before their own, no citizen would be deprived of their freedom in such a way again.

Against the view that we should have boycotted yesterday's election, I was of the opinion that we should show up and vote.

We all know that this election was full of irregularities - only one large party participated, the election date was set in too short a time, the polling booths were arranged in such a way that people three metres away knew which part of the ballot you had marked, and there was a shortage of pens and rubber stamps with which to mark the ballots.

Regardless of the result, casting a vote is still the only way to ensure a peaceful and constitutional exit from political turmoil. Moreover, as voters, we garner the right to legally petition all the irregularities that are sure to spring up in the coming days and weeks. These are rights that non-voters are not awarded.

If this is the game we must play to end the political chaos that is affecting the entire country, whether you are a taxpayer or not, I was glad I was part of it.

Achara Deboonme

The Nation