2 February 2014 Last updated at 10:27 GMT
Thailand election disrupted by protests
BBC's Jonathan Head: "At this polling station, it looks like the election is off"
Protests have disrupted
Thailand's general election, halting voting in parts of
Bangkok and the south, but officials say that 89% of polling stations operated normally.
Some six million registered voters were affected by the closures, the Election Commission said.
PM Yingluck Shinawatra called the vote to head off weeks of mass protests.
Her party is widely expected to win but legal challenges and a lack of a quorum of MPs may create a political limbo.
The unlikely sound of music blaring from a stage led us to the office holding ballot papers for the Din Daeng district. It was also a polling station. Overnight the protest movement had sent dozens of tough-looking men to set up barricades and cut it off.
The police did not try to interfere. An officer meekly requested that election officials trapped inside be allowed out. No deal, retorted the self-styled guards, adorned with tattoos and amulets, and some clearly armed. Nearly all were from the southern provinces loyal to protest leader Suthep Thuagsuban.
So the police set up a line across the road to prevent a confrontation with angry residents who had come to vote. They waved their identity cards, demanding their right to vote be respected. When that didn't work, someone brought up a portrait of the king and queen, and they shouted out their loyalty - a riposte to the common accusation by protesters that the government's supporters are closet republicans.
Suddenly one man broke through the police line, shouting "respect my vote". Insults were thrown back and forth across the barricade, then rocks, and a gunshot, before police could cool badly frayed tempers. They managed to persuade the southerners to pack up and leave; but the damage was done. All voting in Din Daeng was cancelled.
Security has been heavy throughout
Thailand, with vast areas under a state of emergency.
"The situation overall is calm and we haven't received any reports of violence this morning, " National Security Council chief Paradorn Pattanatabutr told Reuters.
Security officials said about 130,000 personnel had been deployed across
Thailand on Sunday, including 12,000 in
Bangkok.
There has been little campaigning for the election and it was unclear how many Thais had turned out.
Ms Yingluck, who won the last election in 2011, voted soon after polls opened near her
Bangkok home.
She told the BBC it was important that people came out to vote to exercise their democratic right.
www.bbc.co.uk/.../world-asia-26003995
